Five Ministers to Seek Softer Brexit if May's Plan Fails: Times

(Bloomberg) -- Five "remainer" ministers -- Philip Hammond, David Lidington, Amber Rudd, Greg Clark and David Gauke -- agreed to try to get Prime Minister Theresa May to support a softer Brexit if she fails to win approval for her plan in the House of Commons, the Sunday Times says, without saying how it got the information.

• Hammond hosted a meeting at which ministers who had opposed Brexit in the 2016 referendum agreed they couldn’t serve in a government that pursues a no-deal Brexit
• That group is also in talks to find a solution with cabinet members Michael Gove and Liam Fox, who supported Brexit in the referendum, and with the Democratic Unionist Party, the Northern Ireland-based party that’s allied with May’s Conservatives
• Members of the group are also expected to urge May to support a permanent customs partnership with the EU
• The Telegraph reported that cabinet ministers and EU diplomats are working on backup proposals on the assumption May’s plan won’t win approval

To contact the reporter on this story: Jim Silver in New York at jsilver@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lauren Berry at lberry4@bloomberg.net, Rita Devlin Marier

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