May wines, dines her Brexit ‘war cabinet’ in bid to hash out policy

LONDON — They call themselves the “European Research Group,” which sounds faintly clandestine.

But these 62 Conservative Party backbenchers in the British Parliament burst into the open this week with a push for a “hard” Brexit, warning their leader, Prime Minister Theresa May, in a public letter not to cave during upcoming clinch negotiations with Brussels.

The Tory hard-liners want Britain to have a complete, clean, clear exit from the European Union — or else.

Supporters of a softer, gentler Brexit, including high-ranking Conservative allies of May, called their demands “a ransom note.”

On Thursday, in what was billed as a showdown, May met with her Brexit “war cabinet” — 10 ministers whose portfolios touch on Brexit issues but who represent both the hard and soft camps — at the prime minister’s official country home, Chequers. Tea, snacks, drinks, dinner, desserts, talk and drinks were on the agenda.

The aim was for May to corral her divided government to present a united front to press on with Brexit. Late Thursday, her office said in a terse statement that the group met for eight hours, that it dined on cream of sweet corn soup and slow braised Guinness short rib of beef and that May would set out “the way forward” in a speech next week after meeting with her cabinet.

There was no word on a united front.

The Brexit meeting Thursday featured such senior figures as Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who has promised that Britain can “have its cake and eat it, too,” and Chancellor Philip Hammond, who worries the country is heading toward rough economic times if it leaves the European Union.

No one in London or Brussels is yet sure what Brexit means in terms of standards for washing machines, tariffs for motorcars, quotas for salmon fishing and so on.