Theresa May to sign Brexit deal with EU leaders as her Cabinet plot to rip up her agreement

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Theresa May is in Brussels to meet with EU leaders.

• Theresa May is in Brussels for a special EU summit to sign off her Brexit deal.
• However, May's Cabinet are already preparing to rip up the deal when it is thrown out by the UK parliament when it returns to the UK in early December.
• Some senior Cabinet ministers are pushing May to move decisively towards accepting a soft Brexit inside a permanent customs union with the EU.
• Doing so could potentially draw the support of opposition MPs but would risk a major split within her own party.

LONDON - Theresa May is set to agree her Brexit Withdrawal Agreement with EU leaders on Sunday, as she faces a fresh rebellion from her Cabinet at home that could yet force her to rip up the deal.

The prime minister is in Brussels for a special summit with leaders of the 27 other EU countries. However, as she prepares to sign up Britain to the terms of the deal agreed in principle last week, members of her Cabinet at home are threatening to force her to throw out the deal if and when it is rejected by the UK parliament.

With all opposition parties and up to 80 Conservative MPs pledged to oppose May's deal when it comes to the House of Commons, Remainer ministers in her Cabinet are pushing for the prime minister to seek an alternative deal that would leave Britain with a closer relationship with the EU after Brexit.

Five ministers, led by the Chancellor Philip Hammond are reportedly pushing for May to adopt a permanent customs partnership with the EU that could potentially draw the support of Labour MPs as well as the Democratic Unionist Party that has propped up her minority government.

DUP leader Arlene Foster said on Saturday that she would be willing to support a Norway-style soft Brexit as long as it prevented any new border and custom controls between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom.

One senior Conservative told the Sunday Times that any attempt to force a hard no-deal Brexit would lead to a mass walkout from Cabinet: "If she said she'd go for mitigated no deal, she would lose most of her cabinet. And this time she wouldn't be losing Esther McVey and Dominic Raab, she'd be losing her most senior ministers. Hammond, Rudd, Lidington, Gauke and Clark would all resign."

Meanwhile, Cabinet Brexiteers, including the leader of the House Andrea Leadsom are also poised to quit if May moves any further towards accepting a closer relationship with the EU after Brexit.

In an open letter to the nation written ahead of today's summit, May promised to bring the country together with her deal.

"I want that to be a moment of renewal and reconciliation for our whole country," she writes.

"It must mark the point when we put aside the labels of 'leave' or 'remain' for good and we come together again as one people. To do that we need to get on with Brexit now by getting behind this deal. I will be campaigning with my heart and soul to win that vote."

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