May’s Brexit woes

British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Cabinet is not close enough to agreeing a way forward for top-level Brexit negotiations to resume, even as time is running short to reach a deal, according to people familiar with the matter. There will almost certainly be no new plan put forward by the British side before Monday’s Budget, the annual statement setting out the Government’s tax and spending plans for the next year, one of the people said. The assessment followed a stormy meeting of May’s Cabinet this week when two factions battled each other over the question of how to avoid customs checks at the Irish border without tying Britain into the European Union’s trade regime forever.