Talking tough with Europe works, insists senior Tory

to tie itself to EU standards on environmental and social protections in perpetuity. The Chequers plan involves signing up to a “common rule book” with the EU, but allows for Britain to diverge from Brussels in future if Parliament decides to.

A senior Whitehall source said: “The noises coming out of Brussels this week suggest some positive engagement with the Brexit white paper. That needs to translate into positive discussions in the negotiating room.”

Tory Brexiteers say Mrs May has already conceded too much ground with her Chequers plan, and said that promising to accept future EU rule changes would turn Britain into a “vassal state”.

David Jones MP, the former Brexit minister, said: “If we talk tough, as we have been doing over no deal, the EU will move towards us. But there is no way the Prime Minister could accept any deal that involved us being tied to future EU rule changes. It would mean MPS having to tell voters at the next election that there are still things we can’t do because the EU won’t let us, and we would be hammered for that.”

Meanwhile, a deputy chairman of the Conservative Party suggested the Chequers plan could be dropped once Britain leaves the EU if a future government wanted to harden up Brexit. James Cleverly told Chopper’s Brexit Podcast: “If at some point we got a trade deal proposal which contradicts elements of the common rule book then we can make that judgment.

“We can look at the opportunities that free trade agreement presents us with and the potential cost to the UKEU trade relationship. You can make and unmake treaties. Treaties can be unmade. It can be done.”

Mr Cleverly added: “No one is pretending the Chequers proposal is going to satisfy everybody. When I went into the referendum, I was campaigning on three explicit points – taking back con- trol of money, laws and borders.

“Because I’m a Conservative there were also for me two implicit additional elements. Do so without destroying the jobs that businesses have created over the last years we have been in Government. Because I’m a unionist, to deliver the Brexit result without breaking up the UK. Those are the five touchstone issues.”

Last night a Yougov poll showed the Conservatives have opened up a four point lead over Labour, as the party struggles to get to grips with the antisemitism row. Some 39 per cent of people would vote Tory, up one point compared with last week when both parties were level.

‘There is such a range of opinions that it’s not possible for one proposal to satisfy everybody’