May to warn Europe it has much to lose if talks fail

Show of unity: Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson arriving in Downing Street for a Cabinet meeting where Theresa May briefed her ministers yesterday on her plans for Brexit.

Theresa May aiming to placate party factions ahead of Brexit speech

The Prime Minister will call for a “time limited” spell to allow businesses breathing space to prepare for life outside the EU in an effort to move Brexit talks forward.

Mrs May is expected to set out the Government’s position on key elements of the UK’s negotiating position including the thorny question of future contributions to the EU budget.

Her speech, to be delivered in Florence, will be closely followed in Brussels amid ongoing criticism from leading European figures that the UK is failing to address major questions.

It will also be an opportunity to reassert her authority over the direction of the Government’s approach to Brexit following a week dominated by the antics of Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

She will say: “While the UK’s departure from the EU is inevitably a difficult process, it is in all of our interests for our negotiations to succeed.

“So I believe we share a profound sense of responsibility to make this change work smoothly and sensibly, not just for people today but for the next generation who will inherit the world we leave them.”

The Prime Minister briefed a Cabinet meeting on the contents of her speech yesterday.

Afterwards Mr Johnson and Chancellor Philip Hammond, who have been battling over the UK’s approach to Brexit, left together, which is being seen as an apparent attempt to signal government unity.

The pair yesterday faced withering criticism from Nick Timothy, a former advisor to Mrs May.

He wrote in the Daily Telegraph: “Boris Johnson and Philip Hammond – who has also been on Brexit manoeuvres this summer – must understand that the surest route to a bad deal, or no deal at all, is to go on behaving as they are.”

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