The gang of five plotting push for changes to deal

Five cabinet ministers, including Michael Gove, are allegedly plotting a push to win last-minute changes to Theresa May’s Brexit blueprint.

Commons leader Andrea Leadsom, who is reportedly leading the group, yesterday said there is “still more to be done” on the deal, which is due to be finalised at an EU summit next Sunday.

The “gang of five”, said to be Leadsom, Gove, Chris Grayling, Penny Mordaunt and Liam Fox, are believed to want to change a number of aspects of the deal, particularly around the Irish backstop – which would result in Northern Ireland staying more closely aligned to some EU rules than the rest of the UK for an indefinite period.

But Brussels sources say there is no chance of reopening discussions around the wording of the draft agreement and sources suggest the ministers’ implied threat to resign if they don’t secure concessions will have little impact on the Prime Minister who is determined to press on and put the deal to a Commons vote.

Leadsom said she was “absolutely determined to support the PM in getting the best possible deal for the UK as we leave the EU”.

However May warned her critics that alternative plans for Brexit would not solve the problem of the North Ireland/Ireland border backstop arrangement.

She said: “People say ‘if you could only just do something slightly different, have a Norway model or a Canada model, this backstop issue would go away’.

“It would not. That issue is still going to be there.”