May plans Chequers showdown on Brexit
Theresa May will gather her warring Cabinet at Chequers to thrash out the Government’s position on Brexit.
The Prime Minister and her senior ministers will settle the details of the Brexit white paper on an away day at the Buckinghamshire retreat.
However, the summit will not take place until after this month’s meeting of EU leaders.
Mrs May is keen to show she is making progress on the process of leaving the European Union after criticism from Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and a row with Brexit Secretary David Davis in recent days.
Plans for the Brexit white paper were announced in May when Mr Davis said it would be the Government’s “most significant publication on the EU since the referendum”.
Mrs May said: “There is going to be a lot of activity in the negotiations over the coming weeks.”
Responding to Mr Johnson’s cricitism, the Prime Minister said the Foreign Secretary has strong views on Brexit “but so do I”, as she attempted to downplay Mr Johnson’s outburst on how negotiations are progressing.
Mrs May claimed “nobody ever said it was going to be easy” to quit the European Union but pledged to “deliver Brexit for the British people”.
Mr Johnson’s indiscreet remarks about Brexit, which saw him call for “guts” in the negotiations, emerged as Mrs May was en route to Canada for the G7 summit.
The return of the EU ( Withdrawal) Bill to the Commons this week will be followed by the June 28 European Council.
Meanwhile, former Ukip leader Nigel Farage has claimed Britain could end up worse off after leaving the EU unless Theresa May is prepared to stand up to Brussels in the Brexit negotiations.
He said: “We will finish up perhaps in an even worse place than we are now because we won’t be free to deregulate, we won’t be free to go out in the world and make our own deals, we won’t be controlling our own borders and we will still be accepting rules from Brussels.”