'May's cabinet fully behind Brexit plan'
The cabinet remains fully behind Theresa May's Brexit policy in the face of growing calls within her party to change direction, No 10 has insisted. The prime minister is sticking by her Chequers plan for future co-operation despite European leaders attacking it.
She will meet senior ministers later as pressure grows on her to ditch it in favor of a Canada-style trade accord. Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg said this would win the backing of the EU, Parliament and also "public opinion".
Speaking at an event in London, Rees-Mogg and former Brexit Secretary David Davis endorsed a plan for a comprehensive free trade agreement with the EU which, unlike the PM's Chequers plan, would not require the UK to abide by its rules.
The UK is due to leave the EU on March 29 2019 and the two sides are seeking to negotiate the terms of exit as well as an outline agreement on future co-operation, over the next month or so.
But the talks hit the rocks on Thursday when EU leaders dismissed the basis of the PM's plan - a free trade zone and common rule book for goods with greater divergence for services - as "unworkable".
