Back me on Brexit, May tells Merkel

THERESA May has sought Angela Merkel’s help to seal a Brexit divorce deal as efforts intensify to get it agreed by Christmas, it emerged last night.

The Prime Minister called the German Chancellor as efforts to design a scheme to avoid creating a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland reach crunch point.

It is thought to be the last sticking point for agreeing a “divorce deal” with Brussels.

Once agreed, the two sides will focus on finalising an outline vision for future trade relations.

The whole package is likely then to go to an EU summit later this month or in December.

If it is approved Mrs May will put it to the House of Commons for a vote within days.

Following on from Tuesday’s call to Mrs Merkel, the PM spoke yesterday to European Council president Donald Tusk, who chairs EU leaders’ summits.

He will play a crucial role in calling a gathering if enough progress is deemed to have been made in the talks with Britain.

There are claims Mrs May needs agreement with her Cabinet by Monday to trigger a dealmaking summit and ministers are on standby for a snap summons to Downing Street.

Yesterday they were invited into the Cabinet Office in Whitehall to view a near-complete draft of the proposed EU withdrawal agreement.

The document, which they saw in strict secrecy and were not allowed to copy, is believed to contain the “95 per cent” of the exit deal Mrs May says has been agreed with Brussels.

But it is not believed to have included the proposed Irish border solution.

Headaches

Leaving the building, Environment Secretary Michael Gove described it as “a great document” but did not elaborate.

Attorney General Geoffrey Cox has been tasked with drawing up a scheme to ensure that any customs union deal the UK enters into with Brussels, to avoid a hard Irish border, will be one Britain can get out of.

Mr Gove is among Brexiteers demanding that ministers see the full legal advice before approving such a deal.

The Democratic Unionist Party went further yesterday by saying Mrs May should break with official convention and make the legal advice public.

The party’s chief whip Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said: “If the House of Commons is going to have a meaningful vote on a deal, on which this legal advice is very, very important, then I think people are entitled to know what that advice is.”

Sir Jeffrey added to Mrs May’s headaches by warning her she cannot rely on his party’s 10 MPs voting to support her deal – despite the agreement that they prop up her minority administration in crunch votes.

He also rejected assumptions his party would not do anything to hasten a snap election out of fear that Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn, who has past links with Irish republicans, might become PM.

Former Labour PM Tony Blair yesterday repeated his call for a second referendum to give people the chance to avoid Brexit in a “pointless” or “painful” form.

And ex-Tory PM David Cameron, seen in Whitehall researching his memoirs, said he fully supported Mrs May and wanted “to let her get on with the job”.