No mention of Chequers as Brexit plan gets rebrand

Kate Mccann and Asa Bennett THERESA MAY dropped the word Chequers from her hour-long conference speech yesterday in a sign that she is rebranding her Brexit plan in an effort to win greater support.

Closing the conference, the Prime Minister did not mention her plan by name once in a 7,200-word speech, instead referring to it as her “proposal”.

Mrs May had faced calls from MPS to rebrand the deal she struck with her Cabinet earlier this year because it was seen by many as toxic and unsupportable. Yesterday, she described it as a “free trade deal that provides for frictionless trade in goods”.

Her address follows heavy criticism from Boris Johnson, her former foreign secretary, who received a rousing reception after his speech on Tuesday. Mr Johnson left Birmingham before the Prime Minister’s presentation.

In a section of the speech titled “our proposal”, Mrs May said: “Our proposal would mean we could renew our role in the world, strike new trade deals with other countries.

“With control of our money, we can spend more on our NHS. With control of our laws, we can bring decisionmaking closer to the people and returning powers to Westminster, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast.

“And with control of our borders, we can do something that no British government has been able to do in decades – restore full and complete control of who comes into this country to the democratically elected representatives of the British people.”

A Number 10 source denied it was a deliberate move and said that the Prime Minister would continue to refer to the plan as the Chequers proposal, but Tory MEP David Campbell Bannerman, who supports a Canada-style free trade agreement, appeared buoyed by the omission.

He said: “It was notable the PM graciously acknowledged a ‘range of views’ as to what is best in the national interest and that the word ‘Chequers’ did not come up once.

“We do very much back the PM to get a great deal, but are convinced Supercanada [Mr Johnson’s alternative proposal] forms the right basis, and is not a simple free trade deal.”

Mrs May also made an appeal to her party to come together following weeks of rows over Brexit, warning that division could put leaving the European Union at risk altogether.

She said: “Those of us who do respect the result – whichever side of the question we stood on two years ago – need to come together now.

“If we don’t – if we all go off in different directions in pursuit of our own visions of the perfect Brexit – we risk ending up with no Brexit at all.”

Her words were interpreted as a direct attack on Mr Johnson’s speech in which he called for his backers to rise up and force her to change course.

Mrs May appeared to tackle his demand for her to “chuck Chequers” and return to the Lancaster House plan by stating that her proposal is an extension of that speech.

However, a pro-brexit Cabinet source said Mrs May’s attempt to rebrand the Chequers deal would fail. They said: “It might have a different name, but the plan is the same and the members still don’t like it. By moving away from Chequers she clearly knows it hasn’t gone down well.”

A Conservative MP who does not back the Chequers plan called Mrs May’s decision to drop the word from her speech “pointless”.