Theresa May's Brexit talks deal brings fragile peace to warring Tories

Theresa May goes into the weekend celebrating a triumph. After eight hours of talks with her inner Brexit cabinet at Chequers, the Prime Minister emerged with a fragile peace deal and plan for Britain's future relationship with the EU.

No one stormed out in protest as the Prime Minister managed to stitch together a compromise deal hooked on "managed divergence". All sides emerged content, with lead Remainer Philip Hammond "relaxed and pleased" and Boris Johnson "positive" too.

The details will be fleshed out in Mrs May's keynote speech next week, but some sketchy details are emerging about the essence of that deal.

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Paste BN understands that the inner Brexit cabinet agreed three main principles on Thursday night.

First, the UK will seek an agreement on "mutual recognition on goods standards" and then maintain those standards after Brexit - effectively ensuring UK rules and standards remain closely aligned to those of the EU to ensure continuing smooth trade.

The Brexit cabinet also signed off on a proposal for "equal dispute settlement arrangements" to reassure MPs that European courts will not have power over the UK and, third, agreed the principle that Britain would have the "right to diverge" from EU rules.

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It all sounds very technical and dry, but at its heart this deal is an attempt by Mrs May to offer something to both sides of her fractured party.

For the Brexiteers, the broad agreement on the need for divergence is an important staging post on their journey to secure a "Canada plus-plus-plus" style free trade deal unshackled from the customs union and single market.

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And for fellow Remainers, there is clear reassurance that the starting point is close UK-EU alignment that you move away from when you "feel it's the right thing to do".

But the tensions within her party are never far from the surface, with trouble brewing on both sides even as she brokered that deal at her country retreat in Buckinghamshire.

Team Brexit is fuming over No 10's handling of a letter - signed by more than 60 MPs - from the powerful European Research Group setting out its demands for a clean break from the EU.

MPs told me this week that four junior members of government - parliamentary aides to ministers - were hauled in by the whips and given a dressing down for signing the letter. "Some have been threatened and bullied and told they will lose their jobs," said one senior source. "There is no good grace at all."

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Meanwhile, on Team Remain former ministers Anna Soubry and Nicky Morgan are leading a rebellion to keep Britain in the customs union.

Five senior backbenchers have already put their name to a cross-party amendment that could inflict a Government defeat, and believe that figure could rise to at least a dozen.

The amendment, tabled on Friday, comes amid growing expectations that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is preparing to shift Labour's position to support the UK remaining in the customs union in a keynote speech on Monday.

Ms Soubry told Paste BN last night that she hoped a change in the Labour frontbench position would not deter Tory rebels from supporting the amendment.

"I always said this was bigger than this [party politics] stuff; that is why I tabled this amendment today," she said.

But, for now, Mrs May has navigated another turn on the perilous road to Brexit. The next hairpin bend arrives on Friday when she makes that all-important Brexit speech.