This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Hardline Tory Brexiters plan to try to force Theresa May to publish a rival draft of the white paper drawn up by David Davis in the run-up to last week’s Chequers summit, which Downing Street ditched.

The abandoned draft set out something closer to a Canada-style trade deal, with additional elements drawn from other EU agreements, sources told the Guardian – an alternative to the approach to be set out in the government’s Brexit white paper, due to be published on Thursday.

Backbenchers from the European Research Group (ERG) will table a “humble address” in parliament, demanding that Davis’s draft be made public, as the Conservative party descends into all-out parliamentary warfare over Brexit.

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That is the same tactic Labour MPs used to force the government to publish the Brexit impact papers. The ERG hopes to win the backing of a Labour frontbench keen to embarrass the government.

May has sought to seize the initiative since the weekend, carrying out a swift reshuffle, and warning backbenchers they must unite behind her or risk handing the keys of Downing Street to Jeremy Corbyn.

She now plans to take a more active role in negotiations, advocating the government’s plan directly to EU leaders, in the hope they will persuade Brussels to be more flexible in its approach. But the backdrop at home is increasingly hostile.

Davis, who resigned late on Sunday night, was infuriated when a paper laid before the cabinet at Friday’s awayday was significantly different to a series of drafts his department had been circulating around Whitehall.

Allies say his version was closer to the Canada-style free trade deal he has long championed, but also incorporated aspects of agreements the EU has signed with other countries – such as mutual recognition of regulations in the car sector.

“You stick it all together, you get quite a good trade deal,” said a source who saw the plans, adding that Davis and his colleagues believed they were following the outlines laid down by the prime minister in her latest set-piece speech. “We were turning Mansion House into hard text,” he added.

One source suggested the earlier draft was “locked in a safe” in the Department for Exiting the EU, and neither Davis nor his close aide Stewart Jackson appear to have retained a copy.

Jackson has claimed Downing Street blocked his reappointment as a special adviser in DExEU earlier this week, when Davis was replaced with Dominic Raab.

At Chequers on Friday, the cabinet supported a proposal drawn up by May’s chief Brexit negotiator, Ollie Robbins, which would see the creation of a “common rulebook” for goods and food.

Some cabinet Brexiters, including Andrea Leadsom and Michael Gove, backed it. However, hardliners believe the common rulebook would constitute legal “harmonisation” with EU rules, which could make it impossible to depart from the EU approach without triggering the Northern Ireland backstop. They also fear it would make it impossible to strike new trade deals with non-EU countries.

Thursday’s white paper will also set out in more detail May’s plans for a “facilitated customs arrangement”, which the Brexiters believe would be too bureaucratic.

A Downing Street spokeswoman insisted: “There’s one version and it’s being published tomorrow.”

In a foreword to the document, Raab says: “Leaving the European Union involves challenge and opportunity. We need to rise to the challenge and grasp the opportunities.

“Technological revolutions and scientific transformations are driving major changes in the global economy. In line with our modern industrial strategy, this government is determined to make sure the UK is ready to lead the industries of the future and seize the opportunities of global trade.

“At the same time, we need to cater for the deeply integrated supply chains that criss-cross the UK and the EU, and which have developed over our 40 years of membership.

“The plan outlined in this white paper delivers this balance.”

Leavers’ efforts to hijack the publication of the white paper underlines the toxic mood in the Tory party, with the ERG prepared to pursue what one member called “Spanish practices”, to force May to ditch her Chequers plan.

Boris Johnson, in a stinging resignation letter, said the plan meant Britain would be reduced to “the status of colony”.

Brexiters have been irked by allegations they have offered no alternative to May’s compromise, which was signed off by her cabinet on Friday, before sparking Davis’s resignation on Sunday, and Johnson’s on Monday – followed by the departure of several more junior Conservatives.

Some hardline Tory MPs, who are deeply unhappy with May’s plan, have already called publicly for the alternative white paper to be released.

On Monday, two hard Brexiters demanded that the prime minister publish the document when she reported back to the Commons following the cabinet summit.

Sir Bernard Jenkin asked May: “Will she undertake to publish the white paper that was set aside – the white paper that was months in drafting by DExEU?” Mark Francois said Davis had been working for months on “a detailed white paper” which was “not presented to the cabinet at Chequers”. Francois called on the prime minister to publish it so the country has “a chance to see the alternative options that DExEU had proposed”.

In reply, May did not acknowledge the alternative white paper but referred instead to DExEU’s underlying work. Replying to Jenkin, she said the document to be releasedon Thursday would be “based on the work that has been done DExEU over recent weeks, and will of course reflect the decision taken by the cabinet on Friday”.

News of the row over the white paper comes as hardline Brexiters set up a series of parliamentary clashes with ministers in the few days remaining before the Commons breaks up for its long summer recess.

Jacob Rees-Mogg and colleagues including Owen Paterson and Priti Patel have laid down four amendments to the trade bill. The ERG wants MPs to kill off May’s “facilitated customs arrangement” in an amendment to Monday’s bill, which calls for the UK to refuse to collect duties for the EU unless member states do likewise.

Rees-Mogg said the amendments to the bill had become necessary after May’s Chequers plan emerged. “Unfortunately, Chequers was a breakdown in trust. Brexit meant Brexit, but now it appears Brexit means remaining subject to European laws. I believe this will help the government stick to the promises it made,” the MP told the Sun.