Theresa May will convene her cabinet on Wednesday for a historic meeting to agree Britain’s terms for leaving the EU after the two sides agreed the draft exit treaty after months of negotiations in Brussels.
The meeting will be a moment of high political danger for Mrs May, as she seeks to win the support of Eurosceptic cabinet ministers who fear the exit deal could leave Britain as a “vassal state” to the EU and cut Northern Ireland adrift.
But pro-Europeans in the cabinet on Tuesday night said they were “optimistic” Mrs May could face down her critics, paving the way for a special European Council meeting in late November to finally ratify Britain’s exit terms.