In the first week of September, Tory ministerial aides were invited to Downing Street for a meeting with Barwell.



Staffers were told by the chief-of-staff to expect that a deal with the European Union would be agreed at a special summit in mid-November, a person who was present at the meeting told BuzzFeed News. It would then be put before the House of Commons for a meaningful vote within two weeks.

It was a bold statement given how much seemingly still needed to be thrashed out in the talks with the EU, and how much opposition there would be to Chequers in parliament. But Downing Street seemed to be on the front foot.

Although they realised they’re in a nearly-impossible political position, some of May’s aides had grown surprisingly bullish in the early days of the new parliamentary term. Sure, there was still lots to be worried about, but they saw reasons for optimism. May’s rivals were weak and divided. The threat of a leadership challenge appeared to have gone. And after months of difficult negotiations, the adviser thought, a deal with Brussels was finally in sight.

There would have to be more concessions to the EU to get the deal over the line, which would make the Brexiteers even more aggrieved, but the advisers believed that even a softened Chequers could be sold to the country as faithful to Brexit. And May’s team had a new strategy for getting the deal through parliament once it had been agreed with Brussels: Move fast.

As Barwell indicated to the advisers, Number 10 had decided its best strategy was to schedule the vote within two weeks of the deal being agreed. They would take advantage of the Brexiteers’ disorganisation and lack of a credible alternative, twisting Tory MPs’ arms by telling them they had a choice of voting for either a done deal or total chaos.

They were convinced the dynamics of the debate would be completely different once there was actually an agreement. Only a very brave Tory MP would vote for the unknown, if that could mean crashing out with no-deal, Jeremy Corbyn coming to power, or Brexit being reversed. At the end of the day, they figured, few Tories would risk that.

“We want to use speed to our advantage,” one Downing Street insider told BuzzFeed News.