Brexit news latest: Penny Mordaunt fails three times to back Chequers

Penny Mordaunt arrives in Downing Street
REUTERS
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Cabinet minister Penny Mordaunt today laid bare top-level divisions over Brexit when she failed three times to endorse explicitly Theresa May’s Chequers blueprint.

The International Development Secretary, who campaigned for Leave in the 2016 referendum, said “we don’t know where this will end up” when asked if she backed the proposals which caused the resignations of David Davis and Boris Johnson.

At the same time, a former Brexit minister who quit in protest at Chequers, claimed as many as 40 hardcore Tory Brexiteers will resist any deal with the EU based on the plan. Steve Baker said up to 80 Conservative MPs were against a “half-in, half-out Brexit” and at least half would stand firm against pressure from the whips.

The splits were on display as Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab prepared to update the Commons on Brexit talks for the first time since the Salzburg summit ended in open disagreement between Mrs May and EU leaders. He was set to be quizzed over reports that the EU now thinks a deal is close.

Theresa May is facing a countdown to get her Chequers deal approved
AFP/Getty Images

Ms Mordaunt stressed that the Prime Minister had her personal support, but appeared to sidestep when asked three times by journalists if she backed Chequers. Asked if it honoured the Brexit vote, she said she was “not giving a running commentary” but was “supporting the Prime Minister to get the best deal possible”.

Asked if Mrs May could count on her support, she appeared to qualify her future backing. “The Prime Minister can count on my support,” she said. “But what I would say is that we don’t know where this is going to end up. I mean, we are at a critical moment now. The ball is firmly back in the EU’s court; we are waiting for them to respond.”

Asked a third time, she said: “The Prime Minister has my full support. I think she is working absolutely flat out to get our country the best deal possible. I don’t doubt her motives. I don’t doubt her commitment ... and I’m not in any way expecting that situation to change.”

Ms Mordaunt was answering questions at the end of a speech on aid spending after Brexit, in which she did not once mention Chequers.

Mr Baker, a senior figure in the Brexiteer European Research Group, told BBC Radio 4’s Today: “We are in a position where, as we roll forward, colleagues will not tolerate a half-in, half-out Brexit.” Mrs May’s allies in the Democratic Unionist Party headed to Brussels today to set out their own red lines.

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