Brexit latest: PM hosts urgent cabinet talks ahead of Commons speech today
The Prime Minister is expected to express a “new sense of optimism” in the process after finally agreeing draft terms on key divorce issues. Mrs May is scheduled to meet with her Cabinet this morning to thrash out plans for the Government’s long-term Brexit vision, before addressing the Commons at 3.30pm. She is expected to tell MPs: "This is not about a hard or a soft Brexit. "The arrangements we have agreed to reach the second phase of the talks are entirely consistent with the principles and objectives that I set out in my speeches in Florence and at Lancaster House.
GETTY Brexit latest: Theresa May is to express 'a new sense of optimism' in a speech to MPs today
But there is, I believe, a new sense of optimism now in the talks Theresa May
"I know that some doubted we would reach this stage. "Of course, nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. "But there is, I believe, a new sense of optimism now in the talks and I fully hope and expect that we will confirm the arrangements I have set out today in the European Council later this week. "In doing so we can move on to building the bold new economic and security relationships that can underpin the new deep and special partnership we all want to see.
GETTY Brexit Secretary David Davis suggested yesterday Mrs May's deal was not binding
"A partnership between the European Union and a sovereign United Kingdom that has taken control of its borders, money and laws once again." Her address comes just a day after comments from Brexit Secretary David Davis were met with an angry backlash from officials in Ireland. Speaking on the Andrew Marr Show yesterday, Mr Davis suggested the eleventh-hour agreement struck by Mrs May and her team last Friday was not binding. The Brexit Secretary said the latest agreement was much more a statement of intent than a ”legally enforceable" deal, and if negotiators were unable to strike a deal on trade, the UK could still walk away without paying a £39bn divorce bill.
But Mr Davis’s remarks were branded "bizarre" by the Irish government's chief whip, Joe McHugh. He told RTE: "We will as a government, a sovereign government in Ireland, be holding the United Kingdom to account, as will the European Union. "My question to anybody within the British Government would be, why would there be an agreement, a set of principled agreements, in order to get to phase two, if they weren't going to be held up? That just sounds bizarre to me. "This, as far as we're concerned, is a binding agreement, an agreement in principle."
GETTY Ardent Leave campaigner Mr Duncan Smith said the UK could 'tear the deal up tomorrow'