May orders divided cabinet to boycott Brexit indicative votes

Backbench MPs and junior ministers to get free vote on alternatives to PM’s deal

Theresa May’s warring cabinet ministers will once again be instructed to boycott Monday night’s indicative votes, as MPs make a second attempt to coalesce around an alternative to her Brexit deal.

The prime minister had suggested she would “engage constructively” with the indicative votes process, set up by a cross-party group of MPs led by the former Conservative minister Sir Oliver Letwin.

But Downing Street sources confirmed that the government will whip Conservative MPs to oppose...