Draft Brexit deal ‘agreed by officials’

Theresa May is to chair a special cabinet meeting on Wednesday to discuss a draft Brexit withdrawal agreement.

A cabinet source has told BBC the text has been agreed at a technical level by officials from both sides after intensive talks this week.

The Sun reported that every minister was being asked to see the PM for one-to-one talks on Tuesday evening.

The future of the Irish border has been the last major outstanding issue to be settled in the negotiations.

Earlier, ministers said they would publish a “full legal statement” before MPs vote on any agreement.

The undertaking was given as the government faced near certain defeat in the Commons over whether to publish the legal advice it gets about the terms of the UK’s withdrawal.

The Democratic Unionists, on whom the PM relies for her Commons majority, said they would vote for Labour’s motion urging disclosure of “the full and final advice” given by Attorney General Geoffrey Cox to the cabinet.

An influential group of Tory Brexiteers also said they would not oppose the move, which was later passed unopposed in the Commons.

During a 45-minute discussion on Brexit, the cabinet were briefed on the state of the negotiations, as well as planning for different scenarios ahead of the UK’s scheduled exit on 29 March, 2019.

No 10 said the prime minister had told colleagues progress had been made since the last cabinet meeting a week ago but there were a “small number of outstanding issues as the UK pushes for the best text” and work was continuing.

The BBC’s Norman Smith said it was thought the only “substantive” area of disagreement left was over the mechanism for the UK to exit the proposed “backstop” customs arrangement – referring to the fallback plans to guarantee there will be no new visible checks on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

On Monday night, some cabinet ministers met for drinks in Mr Fox’s office to discuss Brexit, including no-deal plans and the Irish “backstop”.

Mr Fox told the BBC’s Iain Watson there were “still issues” with the backstop and negotiators were having a “number of difficult discussions”.

The prime minister is under pressure from both Brexiteers and pro-EU MPs as she tries to seal a deal with the EU on the terms for the UK’s exit.

Both the UK and EU want to schedule a special summit of European leaders at the end of November to sign off the withdrawal deal, but time is running out.

Brussels says it will only agree to put the wheels in motion for the summit if agreement can be reached on the issue of the Irish border.

If a deal can be reached with the EU in time, Mrs May will then need to persuade her party – and the rest of Parliament – to support it in a key Commons vote.

 

Source: BBC

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