04 September
EU leaders are planning to give Theresa May’s Chequers plan a warm welcome - but will also demand a solution to the Irish border question.
The EU27 intends to adopt this “carrot and stick” approach at talks in Salzburg later this month. The British prime minister will be offered “evidence of progress in negotiations on the future trade deal as she seeks to fight off the threat of rebelling MPs”, says The Guardian.
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However, a shot will also be “fired across May’s bows on the issue of a backstop for Northern Ireland”, adds the newspaper.
Tricky issues remain “in the 20% of the withdrawal deal text yet to be agreed, but at this late state, it is unlikely anything other than the Irish question could break the negotiation”, agrees Politico.
No. 10 hits back at Boris Johnson
Downing Street has launched a counteroffensive against Boris Johnson, compiling a dossier to rebut his claims about May’s Brexit plan.
Ministers were handed a two-page document, seen by The Times, suggesting that the PM was making progress in the negotiations and quoting foreign leaders’ warm words.
One Tory source described the move as a “hatchet job” on the former foreign secretary.
Polls apart
The Daily Telegraph has details of a new survey of 22,000 voters in the Conservatives’ 44 most marginal constituencies. Three in four were “dissatisfied” with the Government’s handling of Brexit, and more than half believe the Chequers plan is “bad” for Britain.
Meanwhile, a study for pro-EU group Best for Britain, based on two polls of 15,000 people, concluded that 1.6 million more people would vote to stay in the bloc, meaning Remain would probably win, in a referendum held today. It comes as the GMB union announces its backing for a so-called “people’s vote”, reports The Independent.
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