Ministers to demand softer Brexit as Cabinet meets for first time

Theresa May's new Cabinet is meeting for the first time since the election, with some ministers poised to demand a softer Brexit policy.

But the Cabinet Brexiteers have been boosted by the return of Michael Gove, in a move seen as a bid to protect the Prime Minister from a leadership challenge.

"I genuinely didn't expect this role," he told Sky News. "I am delighted to be part of the Government.

"I am delighted to be able to support Theresa May to ensure that we have a Government capable of delivering on the people's wishes."

The other major change is the promotion of Mrs May's close ally Damian Green to First Secretary of State, making him a Deputy Prime Minister in all but name.

Speaking after completing her reshuffle, Mrs May said: "What I've done today is seen people from across the party accepting the invitation to be in my Cabinet and crucially I have brought in talent from across the whole of the Conservative Party."

And on her own future, she said: "I said during the election campaign that if re-elected I would intend to serve a full term.

"But what I'm doing now is actually getting on with the immediate job. But I think that's what's important, I think that's what the public would expect."

After a weekend in which she was called a "dead woman walking" by former Chancellor George Osborne, the PM now has a packed diary over the next week as she fights for survival.

1. First, after the failure to win a strong mandate, some ministers will press at the Cabinet meeting for a softer Brexit which includes keeping access to Europe's single market;

2. Then the PM will attend a showdown with her backbench critics that could decide her fate, at a meeting of the 1922 Committee of Conservative MPs;

3. The following day she has a crunch meeting with the Democratic Unionist Party leader Arlene Foster to try to agree a deal to keep the Tories in power;

4. Then she heads to Paris for potentially difficult Brexit talks with the new French President Emmanuel Macron over dinner.

5. And next Monday the Prime Minister has to introduce a Queen's Speech that will survive attempts by Jeremy Corbyn to vote it down in the Commons.

Her lack of a Commons majority and likely dependence on the DUP to win key votes means key manifesto pledges to scrap the triple lock on pensions, means-test the winter fuel allowance and bring back fox hunting and grammar schools may all have to be sacrificed.

Boris Johnson, who said reports that he is planning a leadership bid are "tripe", is urging Conservative MPs who say the PM should step down or there should be another election to support her.

Writing in The Sun, he said: "To those that say the PM should step down, or that we need another election or even - God help us - a second referendum, I say come off it. Get a grip, everyone.

"This is the third year running that we have forced the people out to the polls. This is the third year running that they have been accosted at stations and asked for their support, or had campaign literature thrust into their hands.

"My judgment is that they are fed up to the back teeth with all this. They are fed up with politics, politicians and the uncertainty and dislocation of the electoral process.

"They overwhelmingly want us to get on with the job."

(SKY NEWS)