Critical period appears to have come between 9pm and midnight as PM spoke with DUP leader Arlene Foster
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| Theresa May and Jean-Claude Juncker meet at the European Commission Getty |
The beaming smile Theresa May wore as she shook Jean Claude Junker’s hand on Friday morning bore out the relief she must have felt after finally locking in a settlement for the first phase of Brexit talks.
With a deadline having been set for midnight on Sunday, early progress was by no means certain and not even expected as midnight approached, with intense international calls being made from 10 Downing Street.
For most of the day Ms May’s Europe advisor Olly Robbins had been in constant contact with Sabine Weyand, the deputy to chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier, laying ground for progress.
Meanwhile, other Downing Street staffers prepared to have their work Christmas party, which continued during the night as cross-channel negotiations lit up the phone lines.
A Number 10 spokesperson said: “We made progress throughout the day yesterday.
“But it was late in the evening, when we felt everything was in the right place and we could move forward together.”
The first sign to the wider world that things were moving towards a conclusion was around 6pm on Thursday, when officials for the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, announced that he would make a statement in the morning.
Around the same time sources at the European Parliament began to say a deal had been done, but even at this point it was not set in stone.
With Downing Street desperate to avoid another PR disaster following the collapse of Ms May’s first proposed withdrawal settlement, Number 10 officials warned journalists against jumping to conclusions.
At 7.35pm Mr Juncker’s spokesperson confirmed the commission President had spoken to both Ms May and Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar.
Mr Juncker and Mr Tusk had cleared their dinner diaries in case the deal was to be sealed early but doubt remained over whether an agreement was within reach.
The critical period appears to have come between 9pm and midnight, when the Prime Minister took two calls in quick succession with the DUP’s Arlene Foster.
It was the Northern Irish political leader’s eleventh-hour intervention on Monday that scuppered the last settlement. But with some changes to the text, she now gave her approval for things to move forward.
Her permission was only given on the continued understanding that there are still outstanding issues around the Irish border that need to be agreed, something the text of the settlement outlines and Downing Street confirmed on Friday morning.
While Ms May was finessing the agreement with the EU, Dublin and the DUP, and with the staff party going on around her, the Chief Whip was trying to ensure the parliamentary party felt included in the process.
Julian Smith MP sent out a series of messages aimed at Tory backbenchers who may still baulk at how the settlement paves the way for the UK to remain in regulatory alignment in Europe, and who will see the Treasury handing over almost £40bn to Brussels as anything but a victory.
Number 10 officials said Ms May had not had phone calls with key cabinet Brexiteers Boris Johnson and Michael Gove last night, central figures in demanding the Prime Minister stand her ground against Brussels’ demands in negotiations.
Democratic Unionist Party leader Arlene Foster gives her leader’s speech during the annual DUP party conference earlier this year (Getty)
But Mr Smith did post a picture on social media showing Mr Johnson met Ms May for a “quick update” on progress during the evening.
The Downing Street spokesperson said: “The PM had a tough day. There was a lot of work to be done, a lot of conversations to be had. We are pleased we got to the place we are at this morning.”
Confirming that the PM only had a couple of hours sleep, he added: “It was a late finish and an early start.”
Ms May was up and ready to leave Downing Street around 3.30am, with her official car whisking her and her bleary-eyed team to RAF Northolt to catch one of the UK Government’s jets to Brussels.
In Belgium, journalists were told to expect her arrival around 6am, and around 30 minutes later Mr Juncker’s chief of staff Martin Selmayr tweeted out a picture of white smoke frothing out of a chimney – a possible reference to the Vatican’s practice of letting off smoke when a new pope has been selected.
The irony of referencing a Catholic tradition, when the key stumbling block to the earlier settlement had been the staunchly protestant Northern Irish DUP, was not lost on social media.
Moments later, pictures were published of Ms May, Brexit Secretary David Davis and Mr Robbins sitting opposite Mr Selmayr, Mr Juncker and Mr Barnier over a breakfast of coffee, pastries and orange juice.
As the Prime Minister headed back to London, Environment Secretary Mr Gove shared a tweet saying she had “won for the UK”.
