Beth Rigby @ BethRigby
1) #Chequers today with the scene set for a big showdown. Six Brexiteers - led by Johnson & Davis - to tell PM her plan not acceptable; told that Javid, Williamson & Alan Cairns behind them. PM can’t afford to alienate 9 cabinet ministers
2) Brexiteers baulked at language around a “common rule book” for goods & agribusiness, which will undermine a future trade deal with US. Brexiteer source told me last night this part of the paper needs reworking
3) Phone calls going on as No 10 tries to reassure angry Brexiteers. Source says claims this plan will mean UK can’t sign trade deals ‘simply wrong’
4) And as for the govt ‘common rule book’ on goods/agribusiness, govt source stresses that no new regulation will come in without Parliamentary vote. Will that assuage the Breixteers?
5) Meanwhile, May this morning issues a veiled threat, reminding cabinet they have a “duty” to agree a Brexit blueprint. She has a message for her party, the need to find a deal “that commands the support of the public and Parliament” > The grand compromise
6) Westminster on resignation watch, but will leading Brexiteers really quit over a plan they think the EU will reject anyway (see David Davis) and at a moment that no-one will pay much attention (World Cup match tomorrow?)
7) But if a big enough subset of May’s cabinet dig in heels, surely some of this white paper will have to be tweaked or redrafted... So will we end the day with another fudge?
8) Cabinet in this morning from 9.30am and will have to hand in phones. This isn’t a conspiracy to isolate them in this all important meet, phones never allowed in cabinet meetings.
A quick point. Last night peston tweeted this:
Robert Peston @ peston
Widespread ministerial unhappiness that they have to read 120 odd pages of dense and complex stuff in just a few hours before making historic decisions on UK’s Brexit future. They are not sure if tardiness of distribution is Downing Street cock up or conspiracy
Davis made a point of never reading the EU briefing papers. And we know how few read read the impact papers (6% of MPs.and Lords).
We know we have cabinet ministers who don't know the contents of the GFA. And we have Cabinet ministers who don't know what Norway can and can not do. We have ministers who don't know what a customs union is.
And last night they were told to do some homework!!!
What do these people do? Westminstenders knows their shit better on this stuff. But a bunch of tossers who complain they have to read 120 pages of stuff (that frankly they should have known in Feb 2016) are making the biggest decision for a generation.
And their laziness in understanding the EU position. Which they have been told repeatedly, means we'll get no deal and be swallowed up by an American take over as we 'take back control'.
Worse: May has the parliamentary numbers, it's just she is being held hostage by these lazy workshy fuck wits.
I am not hopeful.
I'm sure as the civil servants, live update the plan during the course of the day, I'll get increasingly angry and sweary. You've only got a few expletives at 8am.