Theresa May to face crunch show down over Brexit deal

Theresa May faces a crunch cabinet meeting later as she tries to win colleagues’ support for a draft Brexit agreement between the UK and EU.
Senior ministers will gather in Downing Street at 14:00 GMT amid calls to reject the deal from both senior Brexiteers and some Remain supporters.
The Democratic Unionists have warned it could lead to the break-up of the UK.
But the BBC’s Norman Smith said No 10 were stressing it had pushed “right to the wire” and “gone as far as we can”.
He said the prime minister would seek to head off the threat of any resignations by telling her ministers that while not perfect, the agreement was as good as it can get.
Downing Street, he added, were pointing to what they view as significant wins, including no separate customs border for Northern Ireland and an arbitration mechanism to ensure the UK can exit the proposed “backstop” customs arrangement.

Ministers – including Brexiteers like Liz Truss, Esther McVey and Penny Mordaunt – have been filing into Downing Street to get their first look at the agreement in a special reading room, amid speculation about further resignations.

Theresa May is briefing ministers on the plans on a one-to-one basis ahead of a full cabinet meeting expected to last three hours.
If the cabinet signs it off, the EU Commission is expected later to publish the details of the 500-page draft withdrawal agreement as well as the much shorter declaration on future economic and security relations.
The pound made a tentative rise against the dollar on Wednesday morning – up 0.12% – and rose against the Euro – up 0.16% – in the wake of news that the draft had been agreed.
Ambassadors from the remaining 27 EU member states will discuss the possibility of organising an emergency summit later this month, earmarked for 25 November, to sign off on it.