Theresa May and Boris Johnson 'set for Brexit showdown' in New York
2 min read
Theresa May and Boris Johnson are reportedly set to hammer out their differences over Brexit at a private meeting in New York this week.
The Foreign Secretary is concerned that Britain will continue paying up to £10bn a year into EU coffers during a post-Brexit transition, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Mrs May is due to give a landmark speech on Brexit this Friday in Florence at which she is expected to set out her position on key elements such as transition payments.
But Mr Johnson rocked the boat this weekend by spelling out his own vision for Brexit in an article for the same paper.
He argued Britain should pay simply “what is due” and nothing to access the single market after Brexit.
He was accused of “backseat driving” in a withering put-down by Home Secretary Amber Rudd, which was backed up by Mrs May’s right-hand man Damian Green.
The Telegraph says there are fears Mr Johnson could make the “catastrophic” decision to quit his post if he is not appeased and “explode the fragile unity of the party”.
He will accompany the Prime Minister to the United Nations General Assembly meeting this week – although sources in the Times played down talk of a ‘showdown’.
But the Daily Mail reports that Mrs May is prepared to offer a £30bn ‘divorce payment’ to the EU in a bid to break the deadlock over Brexit, which is likely to spark further tensions among the Cabinet.
Meanwhile, Mr Johnson appears to have been abandoned by his ally and Cabinet colleague Michael Gove, who was said to have backed his 4,000-word treatise on Saturday.
A friend of the Environment Secretary told the Times: “If there was a suicide pact of that nature, you’d think Boris would have had the courtesy to tell us he was going to jump.”
Mr Johnson also found himself in a bizzare row with the UK statistics watchdog over his reiteration of the claim the UK can spend £350m more on the NHS after Brexit.
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