Theresa May is set to offer Brussels £20billion for a two-year transition deal after the Cabinet this afternoon finally signed off on her crucial Brexit speech.
Ministers left Downing Street after a marathon two and a half hour meeting insisting they were fully behind the Prime Minister’s bid to force a breakthrough in negotiations.
To underline the agreement on a financial package linked to a transition and ‘bespoke’ trade arrangements, Boris Johnson and Chancellor Philip Hammond walked out of the building together.
The pair have been at loggerheads over the approach to Brexit – with the Foreign Secretary sparking chaos this week before finally backing down on an apparent threat to resign.
The show of unity comes ahead of Mrs May’s crucial Brexit speech in Florence tomorrow, where she will flesh out her plans for our departure.
It came as Michel Barnier turned the screws on the PM by demanding solutions to the Brexit talks by next week.
He also warned Britain must ‘settle the accounts’ and will not get the benefits of single market access without paying into the EU budget.
Boris Johnson and Philip Hammond tried to underline the unity of the Cabinet by walking out of No10 together
Mr Johnson and Mr Hammond even stopped for a chat once they were outside the gates of the famous building
The PM pictured arriving back in No10 early this morning after attending the UN general assembly in New York
Mrs May will use the address in the city tomorrow to go over the heads of Eurocrats such as Jean-Claude Juncker and the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier to send a message to leaders of member states.
In a bid to kickstart the Brexit talks, Mrs May is expected to make an ‘open and generous’ offer to fill the gaping hole in the bloc’s finances left by the UK’s departure with £20billion of funding until the end of 2020.
Without giving a specific figures, she is expected to insist that no country will lose out over that period.
But in return for that commitment, Mrs May is set to demand the EU agrees to a two-year transition deal keeping full access to the single market, and good trade terms afterwards.
She is also expected to rule out an ‘off the shelf’ trade deal after we leave, saying the arrangements in place with Canada and Switzerland respectively would not suit the UK.
However, the idea has already been rejected by Mr Barnier, who gave his own speech in Italy today suggesting the UK would have to choose one of the existing ‘models’.
He also indicated that Britain would have to accept all current EU rules during a transition period.
‘I would like to be very clear: if we are to extend for a limited period the acquis of the EU, with all its benefits, then logically “this would require existing Union regulatory, budgetary, supervisory, judiciary and enforcement instruments and structures to apply” – as recalled in the mandate I received from the European Council, under the authority of President Donald Tusk,’ Mr Barnier said.
Boris Johnson arrived in Downing Street today for the showdown Cabinet meeting on Brexit
Education Secretary Justine Greening and Transport Secretary Chris Grayling were also attending the Cabinet meeting today
Ministers were handed the text of the speech when they arrived for Cabinet this morning and given half an hour to read it, before Mrs May went round the table and asked for views.
The run-up to the crucial intervention has been overshadowed by frantic maneuvering by different Brexit factions within the Cabinet.
Mrs May’s former chief of staff lashed out at Boris Johnson and Philip Hammond today for putting negotiations at risk with pointless ‘games’.
Nick Timothy also complained that the Treasury is talking down the UK’s prospects by failing to consider the ‘positives’ of cutting ties with Brussels.
Emerging from No10 this afternoon, Work and Pensions Secretary David Gauke told journalists the PM had ‘the backing of the Cabinet, of all of us’.
But in a sign of the challenges Mrs May faces even if she strikes a deal with the EU, Tory backbencher Peter Bone made clear he regarded any payment as unacceptable.
‘If you ask my constituents in Wellingborough we want an urgent care centre. We’ve been campaigning for years, and it’s a few million pounds. And we are told there is not enough money for that,’ he told Sky News.
‘If we’re then told we’re giving £20billion to subsidise Romania and Poland, I think my constituents, and I think constituents around the country, would be furious about that.
‘The idea that we continue to pay vast sums of money to the EU would completely break one what was one of the main issues in the referendum. So I don’t think for one minute that the government will contemplate that.’
Mrs May returned from New York overnight, where she used the gathering of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly to hold talks with key EU counterparts.
The plans for the speech were thrown into confusion this week after Mr Johnson published his personal Brexit manifesto, triggering a round of infighting within the ministerial ranks.
Mr Barnier was appointed by the EU commission to lead talks, and has insisted all formal discussions must come through him.
But Mrs May highlighted the role that would be played by the individual leaders – some of whom she held talks with while at the UN.
Before the New York talks Mrs May said: ‘The negotiations are structured within the EU so of course the Council has delegated with a mandate to the commission, and the commission has appointed Michel Barnier.
‘But the decision will always be one that will be taken by the leaders.’
Mr Johnson waved for the cameras as he walked through the famous No10 door today. International Trade Secretary Liam Fox also seemed to be in good spirits
In the margins of the New York gathering, Mrs May met French president Emmanuel Macron, Italian PM Paolo Gentiloni and the Netherlands’ Mark Rutte, although Downing Street did not say whether Brexit was on the agenda for the talks.
Mrs May’s speech in Florence tomorrow will be scrutinised in Westminster and Brussels before a further round of negotiations starting next week in Brussels.
The premier has chose the Santa Maria Novella church as the venue, an imposing 13th-century building which is closely associated with the Renaissance.
The speech has also taken on increased significance in terms of party management following Mr Johnson’s intervention.
The Foreign Secretary was forced to deny he was planning to resign, while Mrs May faced calls for her to sack him from her Cabinet after he published a 4,000 Brexit blueprint.
Writing in the Telegraph today, Mr Timothy warned: ‘Boris Johnson and Philip Hammond – who has also been on Brexit manoeuvres this summer – must understand that the surest route to a bad deal, or no deal at all, is to go on behaving as they are.’
He also accused Mr Hammond’s Treasury of failing to promote the positives of Brexit.
The Chancellor’s department had failed to emphasise the ‘opportunities of Brexit’.
Mr Johnson and other Brexiteer ministers are believed to have been squared off over Mrs May’s plans to offer the EU some form of payment to achieve a breakthrough in the Brussels talks.
But Downing Street described as ‘speculation’ a Financial Times claim that chief Brexit ‘sherpa’ Olly Robbins, who moved on Monday to a role reporting direct to Mrs May, had told Germany she will offer to pay £20 billion in the period up to 2020 to cover gaps in the budget left by the UK’s departure.
Theresa May and Boris Johnson finally went face to face in public last night after an extraordinary row which saw the Foreign Secretary threaten to quit
British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks during the General Debate of the 72nd United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York last night
Speaking in New York, one of the Government’s most enthusiastic Brexiteers, International Development Secretary Priti Patel, insisted the Cabinet was ‘united behind the approach of Theresa May’.
Ms Patel told Sky News: ‘I’m for Brexit and that’s what the PM is trying to achieve – she’s been clear, the Cabinet is clear that we want best deal for Britain.
‘Let’s be clear, this isn’t about individual views of Cabinet ministers, we in Cabinet are united behind the approach of Theresa May and that is the right approach, as it is focused on getting the best deal for the UK.’
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon walked up Downing Street for the Cabinet meeting today
Mrs May met US president Donald Trump last during her trip to New York for the UN gathering
The PM’s former chief of staff Nick Timothy (right) has accused Philip Hammond’s Treasury of talking down the opportunities of Brexit