Brexit means beef fillet: how May’s day at Chequers played out
Cabinet ministers’ phones are routinely locked away when they arrive at Downing Street for weekly cabinet meetings, to prevent the potential for espionage by hostile states.
As ministers gathered at Chequers at the end of a heated summer week of leaked letters, biting texts and secret huddles in the Foreign Office , the policy had another use: to prevent the potential for yet more Brexit hostilities.
Attendees arrived shortly after 9.30am, the chief secretary to the Treasury, Liz Truss, tweeting that she had been “fortified” beforehand by a slice of cold pizza.
And with ministers told to wear formal business attire, despite temperatures in the late 20s, several may have looked longingly at the swimming pool, donated by the former US president Richard Nixon and reportedly one of Theresa May’s favourite places for contemplation. But with the Sky News helicopter circling overhead, a dip might not have been advisable.
