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Brexit news: Theresa May has been accused of clearing her Brexit plan with Merkel
PUBLISHED: 09:19, Thu, Jul 12, 2018 UPDATED: 10:12, Thu, Jul 12, 2018
A row has erupted after the Prime Minister is alleged to have flew to Berlin to share her exit plan with Angela Merkel before she revealed it to her Cabinet at her Chequers retreat in Buckinghamshire.
When quizzed over possible alterations to the Brexit blueprint, Mrs May is said to have made an extraordinary excuse saying: “No that’s not possible.
“Because I’ve already cleared the existing text with Mrs Merkel.”
Downing Street sources strongly refuted the claims but in the Spectator, journalist Charles Moore wrote: “At Chequers, I hear, one of her responses to suggested changes in her blueprint was to say, 'No, that's not possible, because I've already cleared it [the existing text] with Mrs Merkel’.”
Mrs May flew to Berlin last Thursday - the day before crunch talks at Chequers - to hold a meeting with Mrs Merkel.
Number 10 has refused to comment on the claims.
Last night leading Tory Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg said it would unconstitutional of the Prime Minister to discuss British policy with EU leaders before her own Cabinet.
Speaking on Sky News, he said: “I think they might have been taken to Brussels and to Berlin before they were presented at Chequers which is a serious question.
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Brexit news: May met Merkel the day before her Chequers summit
Members of the cabinet and government officials gather at Chequers
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Theresa May speaks during a cabinet meeting at Chequers
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Chequers, the Prime Minister's official country residence near Ellesborough
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Members of the cabinet gather at Chequers
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Theresa May speaks during a cabinet meeting at Chequers
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Members of the cabinet gather at Chequers
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Chequers, the Prime Minister's official country residence near Ellesborough
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Ministerial cars arrive at Chequers
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Attorney General Jeremy Wright arrives at Chequers
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Cars arrive ahead of a cabinet meeting at Chequers
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Michael Gove arrives at Chequers
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Michael Gove arrives at Chequers
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Vehicles wait at a security checkpoint at Chequers
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Justice Secretary David Gauke (right) arrives at Chequers
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Brexit news: May is said to have told Ministers she already 'cleared' the plan with Merkel
“And there’s another question about how they were drawn up because they were drawn up in secret without telling the Secretary of State for leaving the European Union David Davis what was going on, whilst his department was working on a White Paper.
“I don’t think it has been handled in a proper governmental system and in accordance with our constitutional norms.”
Theresa May is set to release the Brexit White Paper today which will lay out her intentions for a Brexit deal.
The terms were agreed at a tense Chequers meeting last Friday and led to the resignations of both the Brexit Secretary David Davis and the Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.
Brexit will “end freedom of movement” and “take back control” of British laws according to new plans to be revealed today.