Theresa May to reveal Brexit plan after intense cabinet talks

Downing Street has revealed that Theresa May will be announcing her post-Brexit vision for the UK's relationship with the EU, in a major speech next week.

The PMs speech, which will take place on Friday, 2 March, comes after she headed a major series of talks between senior cabinet ministers at Chequers on Thursday evening.

The talks were aimed at smoothing out key differences and presenting a united vision for Britain's future outside of the European Union.

Ministers held talks over a period of about eight hours, discussing various controversial issues such as the Irish border and the Customs Union.

The latter has become a thorny problem for the government, with Labour and several Conservative rebels signalling that they will all vote against the government in a bid to ensure that Britain remains in some form of customs union after Brexit.

Before the UK officially leaves the EU, a transition period will take place, currently billed as from March 2019 to December 2020.

Ministers have so far failed to agree on how the UK should proceed during this near two-year period with debate over new rules and ongoing EU policies.

But after the talks in Chequers, health secretary Jeremy Hunt said that the UK would not remain as part of the European customs union.

Instead, he said that the UK wanted "frictionless trade" but would "find a different way" to achieve that.

But an amendment to the government's trade bill could end in defeat should the rebels get their way.

Chukka Umunna is one of several MPs calling for a vote on an amendment that would see the government remain in some form of customs union.

Any vote wouldn't be until early March, but several Tories have signalled they would back the amendment, including Stephen Hammond and Anna Soubry.

However, Hammond denied that it was a threat to Theresa May, he said: "This won't threaten the PM, the PM as I've already explained has set out that this is Government policy anyway. So all we're doing is making sure these options remain."

Eyes are set to fall to Jeremy Corbyn who is to give a major Brexit speech on Monday, 26 February, where he is expected to announce Labour's shift towards remaining in a customs union.