Theresa May has won her cabinet's backing over a draft agreement on the terms for Britain's withdrawal from the European Union. 

The confirmation came as the Prime Minister emerged from a crunch meeting at 10 Downing Street, which lasted more than five hours. 

The move paves the way for a special Brexit summit in Brussels, expected to be held on November 25, for EU leaders to approve the deal.

Read more: Scottish Tories threaten to vote down Brexit deal over fishing policy

However Mrs May acknowledged there would be "difficult days ahead", presumably referring to resistance at a crucial Commons votes in which MPs will hold Britain's future in their hands.

Mrs May will outline details of the deal to MPs tomorrow.

The Herald:

She said: "This is a decisive step which enables us to move on and finalise the deal in the days ahead.

"These decisions were not taken lightly but I believe it is a decision that is firmly in the national interest."
She concluded: "I firmly believe, with my head and my heart, that this is a decision which is in the best interests of the United Kingdom."

Senior ministers met amid a storm of condemnation for the proposed deal from Brexit-backing Tories, with prominent Leaver Peter Bone warning Mrs May in the House of Commons that she risked losing the support of "many Conservative MPs and millions of voters across the country".

The First Minister repeated calls that the UK should not be "faced with a false choice between a bad deal and no deal".

She said: "It is obvious that the Prime Minister can barely unite her cabinet on this deal, and is also increasingly clear that she will struggle to get a majority for it in Parliament."

She added: "If this deal is indeed rejected by Parliament then the UK Government must return to the negotiating table to secure a better one.

"Our bottom line - short of continued EU membership - is continued, permanent membership of the single market and customs union."

Meanwhile, Arlene Foster, whose DUP party props up Mrs May's minority administration in the Commons, warned the PM there would be "consequences" if her deal treats Northern Ireland differently from the rest of the UK.

The level of Brexiteer discontent has raised expectations of further letters of no confidence in Mrs May from Tory MPs, with a total of 48 needed to trigger a vote on her position.

Sources within Westminster said the delivery of letters to the chair of the backbench 1922 Committee Sir Graham Brady was "imminent".

Mrs May described the debate around the famous Cabinet table as "long, detailed and impassioned", in an apparent indication that her proposals had come under intense challenge from ministers.

But predicted resignations did not materialise, as Mrs May said ministers had come to a "collective decision" to back the 500-page document agreed by UK and EU negotiators in Brussels.

Speaking against the backdrop of boos and shouts from anti-Brexit campaigners on Whitehall, she said: "When you strip away the detail the choice before us is clear - this deal which delivers on the vote of the referendum, which brings back control of our money, laws and borders, ends free movement, protects jobs, security and our Union, or leave with no deal or no Brexit at all."