May to hold Brexit peace summit

Ministers will gather at Chequers in attempt to address frustrations over white paper

Ministers will be summoned to the prime minister’s country retreat “soon” after the EU summit on the last weekend in June. David Davis, who is drafting the document, had initially hoped the white paper on the UK’s post-Brexit future would be published before the European Council summit in a fortnight’s time.

May held a long private meeting with David Davis on Thursday as her Brexit secretary looked like he was on the brink of resignation. He is understood to have expressed a litany of frustrations in the meeting, not only over the “backstop” agreement on the Northern Irish border, but also the delay in publishing the white paper.

In the tense compromise talks on Thursday, May agreed to the Chequers’ summit as a way of pushing the process forward. Downing Street was determined there should be no white paper before the June summit, where some technical matters on the divorce deal have to be resolved.

“We wanted to publish something that showed the breadth of our ambition,” one Downing Street source said. “David Davis wants to get on, the prime minister wants to get on, and we all want to get the best results.”

The argument over the white paper revives the differences between Brexiters and remainers that provoked the last Chequers showdown in February, when the cabinet agreed on “ambitious managed divergence” for postBrexit trading arrangements.

Explosive comments

May placated Davis on Thursday by offering to move the white paper process on and insert an end date into the UK’s plan for a customs backstop. However, the peace was short-lived after explosive comments were leaked from foreign secretary Boris Johnson at a private dinner, attacking the chancellor Philip Hammond.

Speaking to the Conservative Way Forward campaign group, Johnson said the Treasury was “the heart of remain”.

May, who was en route to the G7 summit in Canada when Johnson’s words were leaked, defended him. “Boris has strong views on Brexit but so do I,” she told Channel 4 News.

Hammond hit back on Friday: “My experience has been that ... a collaborative approach ... is generally more productive than a confrontational approach.”