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Theresa Mays hopes of a quick Brexit deal slipped away on Sunday.
- Theresa May's Brexit plans risks falling apart after
UK negotiators were forced to abandon plans to sign up to a provisional deal with the EU on Sunday. - The deal could have kept all of the UK tied to EU customs and trade laws indefinitely after Brexit.
- However, several senior Cabinet ministers threatened to walk out over the deal with Conservative MPs plotting to install former Brexit secretary David Davis as prime minister.
- Cabinet rebels are set to meet on Monday evening to discuss what to do next.
LONDON - Theresa May has been forced to shelve her plans to sign up the UK to a Brexit divorce deal after the prime minister came under intense pressure from her own Cabinet to cut all ties with the EU.
A provisional agreement between EU and UK negotiators fell apart on Sunday after the Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab flew into Brussels following threats from several Cabinet ministers to walk out of government and suggestions that Conservative backbenchers are now willing to oust May.
May had been hoping to sign up to a Brexit divorce deal early this week ahead of the crucial October EU summit in Brussels later this week.
However, a provisional agreement between the two sides, that Britain could remain in a "temporary" customs union with the EU after Brexit, caused fury among Conservative MPs who believe that Britain is being forced into remaining permanently tied to the EU.
"In the last few days UK and EU negotiators have made real progress in a number of key areas. However there remain a number of unresolved issues relating to the backstop," a UK government spokesperson said on Sunday evening.
Business Insider reported on Friday that several senior members of May's Cabinet had given May the weekend to change her Brexit plans or suffer a series of walkouts.
A senior Cabinet source told BI on Friday that May was approaching a "killer moment" in her leadership, adding that "the prime minister needs to hear the mood by Monday."
House of Commons leader Andrea Leadsom, International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt and Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey were all poised to quit. Several Cabinet rebels are set to meet on Monday night to discuss what to do about the crisis in the party.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) which props up May's minority government are also putting huge pressure on May, with its leader Arlene Foster suggesting that the party as "ready" to force a no-deal Brexit rather than accept the provisional deal agreed by UK negotiators.
The row has left May's premiership hanging by a thread with multiple reports suggesting that backbenchers are angling for the former Brexit Secretary David Davis to step in as an interim leader in order to deliver a "harder" form of Brexit outside customs and trade ties with the EU.
Conservative MP Nadine Dorries said it may be time to "get Mrs May out of the way" in order to install Davis in Number 10 instead.
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