May in talks with feuding cabinet on Brexit

Bloomberg

Theresa May is holding one-to-one talks with cabinet ministers in an attempt to win their support for her Brexit plan after surprising them with a new proposal for a customs deal with the EU, people familiar with the matter said.
May’s efforts to unite her top team come ahead of a crucial meeting of her cabinet at her country estate, when ministers are due to agree Britain’s blueprint for its future relationship with the EU. Pro- and anti-Brexit ministers have been split over how closely to stick to the EU’s trade regime, leaving negotiations with Brussels stalled.
Ministers have been fighting over two possible options for how customs should work after the divorce. Now a third way has been found, a government official confirmed.
The cabinet will be asked to consider a proposal for future customs arrangements that will be a “significant step forward” from the two previously announced models and the new plan will “give us the best of both worlds,” the official said.
The proposal caught ministers by surprise and senior cabinet members remained in the dark on the details night, with at least one doubting he’ll be briefed before Friday, officials said. Brexit-backing ministers are seeking assurances from the PM that she’s not going to dash their hopes for a clean break from the EU, people familiar with the situation said.
Tensions on the subject of Brexit, never far from the surface among Conservatives, broke out into an open row on Monday, with leading Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg warning May that she could split the party and leave it out of power for decades if she went for a close relationship with the EU. His words provoked a backlash from other Tories, with Foreign Office Minister Alan Duncan accusing him of “insolence” and being in a minority. But Duncan’s boss, Boris Johnson, then moved to Rees-Mogg’s defense, saying he had a right to speak.
Rees-Mogg said on a podcast posted on the ConservativeHome website that if the premier were to strike a deal that secures only “a promise of good faith” from the EU on the post-Brexit relationship in exchange for a $44 billion divorce payment, he’d oppose it in Parliament. “What I’ve been trying to do is to support the prime minister’s position and to remind people that any implementation deal will have to get through Parliament, and if it’s a bad deal that doesn’t meet the manifesto commitments, people won’t vote for it,” he said.
According to reports, May’s team have been warned there are effectively only six weeks left for meaningful negotiations with the EU ahead of the
October summit when the final Brexit deal and future trade framework are due to be signed off.