MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brexit strategy suggestion to Theresa May from 62 Conservative MPs

Mrs May and the government have been under pressure to spell out in detail what they want the UK's future partnership with the EU to look like.

More than 60 Conservative MPs have signed a letter to Theresa May making a series of “suggestions” about the government's Brexit strategy. The letter from the European Research Group says the UK should be free to negotiate and sign trade deals with other countries as soon as it leaves.

The MPs also want “full regulatory autonomy” for the UK after March 2019. The European Research Group is seen as an influential Euro skeptic voice within the Tory party.

The letter, signed by 62 MPs including several ex-ministers and former Conservative Party leader, Iain Duncan Smith, comes ahead of a meeting of the key Brexit sub-committee of senior ministers at Chequers on Thursday.

It sets out the MPs' “continued, strong backing” for the vision set out in Mrs May's Lancaster House speech in January 2017.

“We also want to share some suggestions for how it could be achieved,” they add. “The UK must be free to start its own trade negotiations immediately,” the letter says.

“The UK should negotiate as an equal partner. Ministers may not want or be able to accept the EU's timing and mandates as fixed, and should be able to set out alternative terms including, for example, building an agreement based on our World Trade Organization membership instead.”

Mrs May and the government have been under pressure to spell out in detail what they want the UK's future partnership with the EU to look like.

A key point being debated is how close it stays to the EU in order to avoid barriers to trade with the member states in years to come.

Some MPs want to stay as close as possible to the EU's single market and customs union arrangements, and last month Chancellor Philip Hammond said he hopes the UK and EU economies will only move “very modestly” apart after Brexit.

But others argue this could hamper the UK's ability to strike trade deals with other countries.

The MPs' letter says that the opportunities offered by leaving the EU can be grasped only if the UK can “negotiate trade deals with as many other countries as possible”, and must be able to begin this process immediately.

Labour said the letter “exposes the deep divisions that run through the heart of this Tory government”, and the SNP's Stephen Gethins said: “It is clear from this list of demands that the Tories don't want either a transition deal or a ‎future relationship with the EU.”

Former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said it appeared the prime minister had “one arm tied behind her back by the Tory militants who are now nakedly acting like a party within a party”.