The prime minister held a conference call with her bitterly divided cabinet from the country retreat of Chequers on Sunday evening. Cabinet sources said the consensus on the 90-minute call was to renew efforts to find acceptable changes to the backstop arrangement but that the conversation was light on specifics. The prime minister could then travel to Brussels as early as Monday evening – though Downing Street denied it would be that soon. May’s move comes as fresh polling evidence suggests the public are sanguine about the possibility of a no-deal Brexit. “Parliament must inflict a second defeat on the government – by voting next Tuesday to extend article 50 for a year.

Source: The Guardian January 20, 2019 19:46 UTC