Davis will join rebels in vote against Chequers deal

DAVID DAVIS, the former Brexit secretary, is prepared to join Eurosceptic MPS and vote against the Government next week in a move that could force ministers into a climbdown.

Mr Davis, who quit last week in protest at the Chequers compromise, is willing to back an amendment which will enshrine in law a commitment that there will be no customs border down the Irish Sea.

It is one of four amendments to the Government’s flagship trade bill that have been tabled by Eurosceptics.

The Prime Minister yesterday invited “softer” Eurosceptics to her Chequers rural retreat in what Brexiteers believe is a bid to avert a mass rebellion on Monday.

The amendments tabled by Jacob Rees-mogg and other leading Eurosceptics include a demand that the UK abandons its pledge to collect taxes on behalf of the EU unless member states do the same.

The two other amendments would force the Government to commit to having a separate VAT regime from the EU and force the Prime Minister to draw up primary legislation if she wants Britain to stay in the Customs Union.

The Daily Telegraph understands that if the Government accepts the amendment on the customs border and Ireland, Eurosceptics could withdraw the others – averting a rebellion.

It was yesterday claimed that Tory Eurosceptics helped engineer yesterday’s Donald Trump’s explosive Brexit intervention after one of his key aides asked them how he could help secure a clean exit for the UK from the EU.

John Bolton, Mr Trump’s national security adviser, spent more than an hour discussing Brexit with members of the influential European Research Group of Conservative MPS in London on June 25.

That came just over two weeks before the US president gave an interview to The Sun on Wednesday in which he said that Theresa May’s Chequers deal on Brexit would “kill” any trade deal with the US.