In public, government ministers and hardline Brexiteers on the Alternative Arrangements Working Group insist their snappily titled “Malthouse Compromise” seeking changes to Theresa May’s Brexit deal is being “taken seriously”.



In private, the talks are in trouble. BuzzFeed News can reveal that the AAWG descended into acrimony on Wednesday amid a cancelled trip to Northern Ireland, distrust between Brexiteers and ministers, complaints that the workings of the group breach the civil service code, and the beginning of what threatens to become an existential split within the crucial European Research Group of Brexiteer MPs.

The AAWG was scheduled to head to Northern Ireland on Wednesday for a trip during which they were slated to meet with local businesses and politicians, travel to the Irish border, and be briefed by intelligence officials on the security implications of Brexit.

As late as Tuesday afternoon the visit was still due to take place, but following a series of panicked phone and text conversations between senior Brexiteer MPs due to board the plane to Belfast, it was called off.

One MP who had given up his seat at the Conservatives’ lavish annual Black and White Ball fundraiser on Tuesday night so he could be on the trip was left with an empty diary.

Three senior members of the ERG told BuzzFeed News that the trip was called off after Brexiteers on the AAWG decided they were being stitched up by Downing Street.

One said the agenda organised by the government was designed to expose hardline Brexiteers including Steve Baker, Iain Duncan Smith and Theresa Villiers to meetings in which various Northern Irish representatives would warn them against the dangers of a no-deal Brexit.

Concerns were raised that private discussions with ERG hardliners and Northern Irish farmers and businesses and UK intelligence officials about the implications of a no-deal Brexit would be briefed to the press by Number 10.

A second ERG member confirmed these fears were raised within the group on Monday, telling BuzzFeed News that distrust between the Brexiteers and the government led to the trip being called off. “It was a trap,” they said.

A third source described the proposed agenda as “Project O’Fear”.

With the Northern Ireland trip off, Brexiteers backing the Malthouse Compromise stayed in London for further meetings with Brexit secretary Steve Barclay and a briefing with journalists in the House of Commons.

Following the prime minister’s admission on Tuesday that she would not seek to remove the controversial backstop insurance policy from the withdrawal agreement, an ERG figure said: "The thing about the PM is she'll stick with the same line until something else is firmly on the table."