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Pro-EU Ministers Plot to Stop May Driving U.K to No-Deal Brexit

Pro-EU Ministers Plot to Stop May Driving U.K to No-Deal Brexit

(Bloomberg) -- Ministers in Theresa May’s government who were shocked by her dramatic shift in tone toward embracing a no-deal Brexit are working on ways to force her to change course.

Speaking privately, one cabinet minister was confident at the start of the week that May would never allow the U.K. to leave the EU without an agreement. But the minister now fears the premier has reversed her position completely, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The person said May is defying two separate votes in which Parliament rejected a no-deal split, is failing to consult her cabinet, and is putting Conservative Party unity ahead of the national interest.

A person familiar with the thinking of another cabinet minister said May’s new strategy was dooming her deal to failure. The people didn’t say how ministers would confront May, but one said that next week was shaping up to be a big week. Parliamentary votes are penciled in on May’s deal, as well as on a range of potential Brexit Plan B options.

Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt tweeted on Thursday that the U.K. “will not leave the EU without a deal.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Flavia Krause-Jackson

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