We will use your email address only for sending you newsletters. Please see our Privacy Notice for details of your data protection rights.

Sign up fornow and never miss the top politics stories again.

There was an error processing your request. Please try again later.

GETTY Theresa May will present the government's repeal bill before Parliament next week

On Thursday the Government will table the Repeal Bill, legislation central to Theresa May’s EU departure plan, in the Commons. It is a moment of Westminster flummery heralding months of wrangling that senior Tories are not relishing. “Next week we will see a bit of chest beating but no serious action,” one Tory MP told me. “The real trouble is coming in the autumn and it is going to be nasty.”


Related articles Venezuela shows why we need to keep out Corbyn - EXPRESS COMMENT

The Repeal Bill has been drafted to scrap the 1972 European Communities Act that enshrines the UK’s membership of the EU in law.

The measure will also end the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice and transfer thousands of existing EU rules and regulations into British law to ensure a smooth transition the day after Brexit. It is a complex piece of legislation that is ripe for meddling from hard-line Remainers who still dream that the withdrawal from the European bloc can be halted. Last month’s general election flop has left the Prime Minister’s forces with little enthusiasm for a fresh fight.


GETTY Tory MPs are concerned that the real battles that the government must fight are still to come

“We should be looking to force divisions in Labour over Europe but unfortunately it looks like they are going to be doing it to us,” one Cabinet minister told me. “As a party we never seem to have the ruthlessness to go in for the kill.” Tory MPs note that Labour’s Leftwing activists are intensively campaigning in marginal constituencies every weekend in anticipation of another election soon. They despair that the Tory machine, still recovering from last month’s poll, is in no fit state to consider any sort of response.

Ministers expect Labour to give no quarter in the coming Repeal Bill clashes. Jeremy Corbyn’s election manifesto committed the party to backing Brexit and sources close to the hard-Left Labour leader have indicated that his MPs will be whipped to support the legislation. Yet that does not rule out a deluge of amendments coming forward that could effectively wreck the measure. Some at Westminster can recall the bitter battles of the Maastricht Treaty that forced Britain to accept another round of European integration in the early 1990s. The then-Labour leader John Smith supported the treaty yet used any excuse available to force votes that tested John Major’s fraying Commons majority to destruction. Senior Tories are resigned to Mr Corbyn and his cronies, emboldened by their poll gains, to similarly torture Mrs May.

GETTY Theresa May's authority is also under threat by Jeremy Corbyn and his increasing support

They also fear that their bruised party is not in any condition for a parliamentary war of attrition. “We have not got the strength in depth around the Cabinet table. The whips are just not up to it. There is no strategic thinking,” the Cabinet minister said. Worries are growing in the Government that pro-Brussels Tories, including the outspoken former ministers Anna Soubry and Nicky Morgan, egged on from outside Parliament by former chancellor George Osborne, are ready to make serious mischief over the Repeal Bill. “They are going to table a whole load of amendments and just bog us down. It will drag on and mean many late-night knife-edged votes. It is going to be a nightmare,” the ministerial source predicted. “I see people from my own party in the Commons tearoom and feel I just don’t want to speak to them any more because of the trouble they are stirring up.”

Brexit talks 2017: Day one of Brexit negotiations latest pictures EPA EPA REUTERS REUTERS REUTERS REUTERS REUTERS REUTERS REUTERS REUTERS REUTERS

Downing Street insiders were particularly alarmed this week to discover that David Cameron has been discreetly contacting Tory MPs to try to persuade them to press for a deal with the EU that keeps main ties to Brussels. Speculation among a small coterie of junior ministers about an imminent leadership challenge has also not gone down well. Mrs May does not appear intimidated by the grumbling and plotting on the fringes of her party. After a tumultuous month she is radiating determination once again. But as she prepares to launch her flagship Brexit measure her ministers fear her troubles are only just beginning. Members scramble to get powerful committee jobs Election fever returns to Westminster next week, even if the rest of the country has had its fill of voting. On Wednesday MPs will cast their ballots to choose the new chairmen and chairwomen of the Commons select committees.

GETTY Labour and Tory MPs are plotting to prevent Rees-Mogg from being elected Treasury Committee Chair

The contests for the coveted roles, which bring holders an extra £15,025-a-year top-up to their backbench salaries, are always closely fought affairs. In this hung parliament MPs suspect the positions will become more influential than ever before and the scrabble for votes has been intense. Commons committees have sweeping powers to launch investigations and summon witnesses for high-profile inquisitions. Their heads are in prime place to shape the parliamentary agenda and set the tone of debate at Westminster. MPs suspect that a co-ordinated, cross-party effort is under way by pro-Brussels MPs to ensure the key chairmanships are taken by prominent figures who backed the Remain campaign in last year’s EU referendum. Labour and Tory members are understood to be plotting to try to prevent the staunch Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg taking charge of the prestigious Treasury Committee. There is also a move – backed by senior Labour figures Harriet Harman and Ed Miliband along with Tory Anna Soubry – to return Labour’s Hilary Benn to the chairmanship of the fractious EU Exit Committee, much to the frustration of many Leavers. Similar contests are being fought for other key posts.

GETTY Yvette Cooper was the Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee