Theresa May ‘privately told Cabinet ministers she will rule out No Deal’

THERESA May has privately told Cabinet ministers that she will not take Britain out of the EU without a deal, The Sun has learnt.

The PM told members of her top team that she is not yet prepared to rule out No Deal in public because it would remove a key bargaining chip in negotiations with the EU.

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But a Cabinet source who has sat in meetings with the PM and ministers over the last week told The Sun: “The PM has made quite clear that she’s not going to go for no deal.”

Another senior Tory told The Sun that Remainer ministers have succeeded in influencing the PM to privately oppose a No Deal Brexit.

The source said: “She’s terrified about jobs, they’ve got it into her head that there would be lots of job losses and she doesn’t want that.

"It’s really troubling her.”

Yesterday Education Secretary Damian Hinds echoed this message, telling Sky News: “I can’t envisage a scenario that no deal becomes government policy.”

And Mrs May’s de-facto PM David Lidington issued a last ditch appeal to Remainer ministers not to quit in order to back a plan to avoid a no deal Brexit in  Commons votes.

Amber Rudd is among a string of ministers who have threatened to quit so they can vote in favour of ruling out no deal.

But in highly significant remarks Mr Lidington urged them to hold fire - saying they would get another chance to vote against a no deal Brexit next month.

Mr Lidington wrote in the Observer: “If Parliament wishes to avoid no deal, I have no doubt it will find ways to express a view in the coming weeks.

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But next week’s debate is not a re-run of the meaningful vote, nor is it the final decision point for MPs.

So we must keep our focus on the only real way to rule out no deal – and that is to find common ground on a deal.”

Defence Minister Tobias Ellwood broke ranks and insisted publicly for the first time that a no deal scenario must be ruled out.

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