Tory ministers grasp for unified stance on ‘away day’
BRITISH ministers used a marathon “away day” meeting to try to agree a unified Brexit stance following Tory clashes on how to move forward.
The Brexit “war cabinet” gathered at the UK prime minister’s country residence of Chequers in a bid to get consensus on Britain’s “end state” objectives regarding leaving the EU.
However, there was a setback to Theresa May’s plans ahead of the meeting, as the European Commission released a document explicitly rejecting the PM’s “three baskets” approach to future regulatory co-operation.
The approach, set out in her speech in Florence in September, envisages different areas in which the UK would either continue with existing regulatory frameworks, operate its own separate rules largely mirroring those in the EU, or diverge significantly from the Brussels regime.
But a set of slides setting out the commission’s negotiating position said: “UK views on regulatory issues in the future relationship including ‘three basket approach’ are not compatible with the principles in the EuCo (European Council) guidelines.”
British attempts to “cherry-pick” EU rules threaten the integrity of the single market, while efforts to preserve UK influence over EU decision-making after Brexit “risk to unsettle the EU ‘ecosystem’”, the slides warned.
The move came as Labour announced leader Jeremy Corbyn will make a significant speech on Brexit policy on Monday, in an apparent attempt to steal a march on the prime minister, who is expected to use a high-profile address days later to set out her own vision of Britain’s long-term relationship with the EU.
Mr Corbyn has come under increasing pressure from Labour MPs to provide clarity on his stance on membership of the single market and customs union.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell made it clear that remaining in the single market would leave many voters feeling the referendum result had been ignored.
The Chequers meeting comes after leaked negotiating guidelines caused concern among Brexiteers, and the UK gov- ernment was forced to dismiss claims that it was seeking a more open-ended transition deal after the UK formally quits the trading bloc in March 2019.
The paper stated the length of the “status quo” transition “should be determined simply by how long it will take to prepare and implement the new processes and new systems that will underpin the future partnership”, which “points to a period of around two years”.
However, MPs have warned that Britain could be stung with an extra £4-£5bn (€4.5-5.6bn) Brexit “divorce bill” if the transition period runs into 2021.