Brexiteers plot Theresa May ultimatum on backstop: Telegraph
Live MintLondon: Five UK ministers who favour a clean break with Europe will demand that Prime Minister Theresa May return to Brussels and alter the EU withdrawal agreement as the price of their staying in the Cabinet, the Telegraph reported, citing a person close to one of the officials. The ministers, including Andrea Leadsom, leader of the House of Commons, and Michael Gove, the environment secretary, want May to renegotiate the “backstop” provision that avoids a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, to give the UK the right to unilaterally withdraw from that portion of the accord, the paper said. The group that includes Chris Grayling, Penny Mordaunt and Liam Fox would quit if May didn’t agree within two weeks, it said. The Telegraph said the five ministers also would confer with other possibly disgruntled Cabinet members, including Sajid Javid, Geoffrey Cox, Jeremy Hunt and Liz Truss, to seek more support for their demands.