Cabinet ministers fell over themselves to brief their Brexit positions after the marathon seven-hour meeting broke up. However, there were soon conflicting reports about how much Brexiter ministers were really adopting hardline positions in the meeting, or just claiming to have done so afterwards, perhaps with leadership ambitions in mind.
Some cabinet sources said at least 14 cabinet ministers were fighting for no deal in preference to a long delay. But others pointed out the real choice was between a short delay and a no-deal Brexit, of which only four members of the cabinet were in favour. This is how the arguments broke down:
Any extension to find a deal
There were at least 11 ministers present who agreed with the overall plan to ask for a longer extension and reach out to try to find a compromise with Labour or parliament more widely. These were Theresa May, David Lidington, Michael Gove,…
