Theresa May came under pressure to spell out her new “third way” customs proposals on a day when Conservative differences over the country’s post-Brexit future spilled into the open ahead of a crucial cabinet summit.



Downing Street indicated it had produced a fresh model for the UK’s post-Brexit trading arrangements but would not supply details ahead of Friday’s Chequers away day with some cabinet members complaining they had not seen it.

The new idea was outlined early on Monday morning but the prime minister made only a passing reference to it when she appeared in the Commons. May, promising to publish the long-awaited Brexit white paper next week, said it would include “proposals relating to customs and Northern Ireland”.

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It is designed to replace the discredited customs partnership model that was favoured by May and the maximum facilitation model preferred by the Brexiters and the majority of her inner cabinet, both of which had been rejected by the European Union as unworkable.

But there were complaints about the lack of detail, with some senior cabinet members saying they were not aware of what was contained in fresh proposals, while Number 10 would not be drawn on who had been involved in its development.

Details would be unveiled for the full cabinet to sign off at Chequers on Friday, although there were early indications it would not involve the UK signing up to the EU’s system of common external tariff for goods in a revamped maximum facilitation proposal as some Brexiters had feared.

Jeremy Corbyn sought to play up Tory divisions on the UK’s post Brexit future in the Commons. Speaking in a debate about last week’s European council meeting, the Labour leader said he “looked forward to the much vaunted third way on customs that the prime minister hopes will unite her cabinet, because the current chaos at the heart of government leaves us facing crucial unanswered questions”.

May responded with an emotional appeal for party unity at a ball for party donors in London. Describing the stakes as high, the prime minister said: “We each have a choice to make. Will we come together and stand together as a party, as a government and as a country?

“Will we find the boldness, the courage and the discipline to unite as one for the good of our nation and fellow citizens? Or will we be divided and allow the scale of the challenge, the complexity of the questions to overwhelm us?”

The prime minister will travel to see Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, on Tuesday and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, on Thursday. Number 10 insisted that neither leader would get an advance briefing on the customs proposal that is intended to break the political deadlock in the Tory party.



Meanwhile, the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, was forced to leap to the defence of leading Brexiter Jacob Rees-Mogg, after the MP for North East Somerset was criticised by party colleagues for warning that May risked splitting her party as Sir Robert Peel did when he forced through the repeal of the corn laws in 1846.



Nicholas Soames (@NSoames) A message for my old friend @Jacob_Rees_Mogg shut up #letthePMdoherjobwithoutthisconstantcarpingputasockinit

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As May’s statement to the Commons was concluding, Johnson tweeted: “It’s vital that all MPs are able to air their views on Brexit. Whatever your position, I hope we can all agree that Jacob Rees-Mogg is a principled and dedicated MP who wants the best for our country.”

Earlier, two Foreign Office ministers, Alistair Burt and Alan Duncan, publicly rebuked Rees-Mogg. Duncan accused him of “insolence” and said his “lecturing and threatening the PM is just too much”, adding: “The ideological right are a minority despite their noise and should pipe down.”



Burt accused Rees-Mogg of being part of an “ideological clique” in a tweet after the article was published. “Just tired of this endless threat and counter-threat,” he wrote. “Why don’t we want the best for the UK than for our own ideological cliques? And there are others in this negotiation as far as I’m aware?”

Play Video 3:15 Will the real Jacob Rees-Mogg please stand up? - video profile

Rees-Mogg, who chairs the European Research Group (ERG) of pro-Brexit Tory MPs, writing in the Telegraph, said: “Theresa May must stand firm for what she herself has promised. One former Tory leader, Sir Robert Peel, decided to break his manifesto pledge and passed legislation with the majority of his party voting the other way.

“This left the Conservatives out of office for 28 years. At least he did so for a policy that works. At Chequers, [May] must stick to her righteous cause and deliver what she has said she would, she must use her undoubted grace to persevere.” Allies of Rees-Mogg said privately that they believed they had the numbers to help vote down May’s final deal with the EU if they thought it made too many concessions to Brussels.

Nicky Morgan, a former education secretary, urged May not to listen to the “arbitrary red lines” of Brexiters like Rees-Mogg. Speaking in the Commons, to complaints from her own benches, Morgan called on the prime minister to “find a pragmatic, sensible and flexible Brexit which delivers on the referendum result of two years ago but protects businesses and jobs and the economy and entrepreneurs, otherwise we will not be thanked for the mess that we end up in”.



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Cabinet ministers intend to turn on the charm to justify their post-Brexit strategy, with David Davis, the Brexit secretary, organising a summit for business leaders at Chevening House on 20 July, the week after the white paper is published.

It comes after Johnson had reportedly said “fuck business” at a reception in response to corporate concerns about the lack of clarity emerging from the British government, and a desire by business for a soft Brexit deal that would as far as possible replicate the UK’s existing trading relations with the EU.

The invitation from Davis said that the idea was to “to use this opportunity to assemble another group of business leaders from across the economy, including some new voices who were unable to join us last time, to continue the dialogue”.