The interminable essay crisis-style machinations between the EU and the UK of the past couple of days have given way to excitement this evening. A draft Brexit deal running to more than 500 pages has been agreed.
The cabinet will meet at 2pm tomorrow to consider the draft text. Troublesome cabinet ministers will be called in individually this evening.
So what does the deal look like? And will it fly?
On the Irish border, Tony Connelly, RTE Europe Editor, reported that the backstop will take the form of a UK-wide customs arrangement with some sort of review mechanism in the text (a win for Theresa May) with special “deeper” provisions for Northern Ireland on regulations if the arrangement does not secure a sufficiently soft border. That could be a really hard sell to the cabinet and dissident Brexiteers in parliament and the DUP.
Right on cue, Peter Walker, the Guardian’s political correspondent, reported from Parliament’s central lobby: “May’s Brexit plan is in big trouble immediately. ERG and DUP stand together to brief press they will not support her plan if it is as billed.”
Boris Johnson has already begun Brexiteer harrumphing. He said that the deal as billed is a “chronicle of a death foretold” and “vassal state stuff.”
Kate McCann, political correspondent at Sky, tweeted that: “Boris wants to see Cabinet resignations tonight over Brexit deal. Calls for them to get tough – now is the time.” She added that Tory Jacob Rees Mogg told her that “he wants to see better leadership from the Prime Minister.” In an interview, Rees Mogg went still further than Boris. The UK would become a “slave state” as a result of a deal, he said.
No cabinet ministers are speaking to the media until after the emergency meeting tomorrow afternoon.
A further caveat. A spokesperson for Ireland’s foreign minister Simon Coveney said that negotiations are still “ongoing.” But that could be more a case of effervescent Coveney indulging in some last-minute grandstanding.
If the deal is confirmed at cabinet tomorrow, it will be sent to European capitals to be ratified. An emergency EU summit is planned for next week, it seems.
Postscript – a Tory MP was heard outside the Commons saying: “We’re going to hell.”
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Iain Martin and the team make sense of the news, providing commentary and analysis on the stories that matter in politics, geopolitics, economics and culture.