Which Tory ministers might resign over May's Brexit deal?

Ministers are being briefed on Theresa May’s proposed Brexit deal before a crunch cabinet meeting on Wednesday, and there is speculation that some leave-supporting figures could resign. Here are five ministers who could be minded to make the leap.

Dominic Raab

The Brexit secretary since David Davis resigned in July, Raab is both a committed leaver and something of a pragmatist. He has been an assiduous Brexit secretary, noted in London and Brussels for taking a more active approach than the generally laissez-faire Davis. If he departed it would be a big blow to May, who would have lost two ministers in charge of her flagship policy in less than five months.

Penny Mordaunt

Another cabinet minister who arrived as a result of a resignation; she became international development secretary last year after Priti Patel was forced to step down over unauthorised meetings. It is no secret that Mordaunt has doubts about May’s Brexit ideas. Last month she pointedly refused to back the Chequers proposals, saying only that she would not give a “running commentary” on talks. She has been floating her own policy ideas, such as reportedly suggesting this week that the UK could pull out of Unesco, the United Nations cultural organisation. If she quits she could become a figurehead for dissent.

Andrea Leadsom

The leader of the Commons – briefly the last person standing between May and the prime ministership in 2016 – is another committed Brexiter who has, so far, stayed scrupulously loyal, focusing on piloting endless Brexit-related legislation through the Commons. But she has started to gently agitate in recent days, saying that a Brexit deal must not “trap” the UK in a customs arrangement it cannot leave voluntarily. While Leadsom’s own leadership ambitions seem almost certain to be over, her departure would nonetheless be a blow to May.

Liam Fox

He is the last of the “three Brexiters” appointed by May to her original cabinet, the other two, Davis and Boris Johnson, having resigned in protest at the Chequers plan. To lose Fox would be a potential turning point for May. The international trade secretary has largely kept himself to the sidelines of the main Brexit process, racking up air miles while crossing the globe seeking to mark the start of new trade deals, and acting as a general cheerleader for a supposedly buccaneering, free-trade, future for the UK. But Fox is seen as a keeper of the Brexit flame, and if he denounces May’s deal then it would certainly spell trouble.

Esther McVey

The work and pensions secretary, who entered the cabinet in January’s reshuffle having spent the period between the 2015 and 2017 general elections out of the Commons altogether, has long been seen as one of the more vocal Brexit malcontents. She has refused in the past to explicitly back May’s stated strategy, and is seen as one of the more likely to quit. If she does go the impact could be slightly leavened by the PM losing a sometimes controversial minister who has become the face of the often unpopular policy of universal credit.