Theresa May has delayed a key decision about Britain’s Brexit trade deal in bid to unite warring Cabinet ministers
Sources claim the PM still fears the distance between Chancellor Philip Hammond’s soft Brexit camp and Boris Johnson’s bid for a clean break is too wide
THERESA May has again delayed any key decisions about what Britain wants from a Brexit trade deal until next year to buy more time to unite her warring big beasts.
The Cabinet finally meets next week Tuesday to discuss Brexit's ‘end state’ in detail for the first time.
The session was billed as a vital showdown over the tinderbox issue of how far to diverge from EU regulations after the UK leaves.
It was called after a series of senior ministers insisted it was vital to start making decisions for Phase Two of the negotiation soon.
But instead, The Sun has learned that the meeting – which will follow a smaller Brexit war cabinet session 24 hours earlier on Monday - will only now see each of the Cabinet’s 28 members asked to air their views.
Sources said the PM still fears the distance between Chancellor Philip Hammond’s soft Brexit camp and Boris Johnson’s bid for a clean break is too wide.
No10 aides are now drawing up plans for a series of war Cabinet meetings through out January to try to bridge the gap by February.
The PM is then likely to make her third big Brexit speech to spell out the the Government’s formal requests to Brussels are.
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The fresh delay has left some senior Tories angry that Mrs May will waste two more crucial months, while the two year-long Article 50 clock continues to tick down.
One minister said: “It is delay on delay, and fudge on fudge.
“No10 is going to have to get off the fence on this soon, and they know it”.
Another Cabinet source added: “The really big question everyone is asking is whose side is the PM on? So far, she hasn’t given anything away.”
EU battle for workers
FRANCE is drawing up a plan to pinch thousands of London financiers after Brexit by slashing taxes for high earners.
President Macron’s finance ministry is finalising a big incentive package to try to coax City fat cats to cross the channel.
The move is a bid to reverse the exodus from Paris to Britain’s capital after former leader Francois Hollande’s Socialist crackdown five years ago.
But it also emerged yesterday that the City may lose far fewer jobs due to Brexit than some had predicted.
A survey by the Financial Times revealed the UK’s biggest international banks are set to move only 4,600 jobs from London in preparation for Brexit - six percent of their total workforce.
An EY study this week claimed 10,500 could leave on “day one” of the UK’s EU departure in March 2019.
Mrs May’s delay is being given cover by the EU also not being ready yet to begin discussing trade, as it needs more time to hammer a joint negotiating position among all 27 members.
The PM’s chief of staff Gavin Barwell is also urging the Cabinet to wait until the EU shows more of its cards.
A No10 source said: “This is a negotiation.
"That means there are two sides to it, and a lot will also depend on what the EU decides it wants.
“It’s important we don’t box ourselves in too early.”