Theresa May will need to negotiate on several issues including on the backstop and fishing

Esther McVey was “shouted down” by the chief whip and rebuked the new cabinet secretary in the closing stages of a tense five-hour meeting at No 10 yesterday, colleagues said.

The work and pensions secretary was on “resignation watch” after what one fellow minister described as a “meltdown” at the end of the marathon cabinet session.

Ms McVey, one of the most ardent Brexiteers of the cabinet, demanded a vote during the meeting to force each minister to commit definitively one way or another to the draft Brexit deal.

Colleagues were unimpressed, with one describing her as “aggressive” and another describing a “massive row” which “got really fruity” with the minister pushing her point more than once.

Ms McVey was then shut down by Julian