UKmay stay in customs union until 2023
any benefits of leaving the EU.’’
The Government is yet to agree a position on the customs relationship with the EU after a meeting of the Cabinet’s Brexit sub-committee broke up without a decision on Wednesday.
May’s preferred option of a customs partnership with the EU was rejected by a majority of the 11-strong committee, and the Prime Minister was warned yesterday not to try to revive the policy.
Brexiteers fear she will present a ‘‘customs partnership 2.0’’ plan to the committee later this month in the hope of winning over the Remainers Gavin Williamson, the Defence Secretary, and Sajid Javid, the Home Secretary, both of whom sided with Leavers during the heated discussion. The alternative being discussed by ministers is a ‘‘maximum facilitation’’ plan, or ‘‘max fac’’ for short, which will harness new technology and trusted trader schemes to avoid a hard customs border in Ireland.
The EU has rejected both ideas out of hand, giving succour to Remainers who argue that staying in the customs union is the only viable solution if Britain is to solve the Irish border problem.
May has been told by Julian Smith, the Chief Whip, that the Government is likely to lose a crucial vote in Parliament in the coming weeks calling for ministers to make a customs union with the EU one of their Brexit negotiating objectives.
Tory rebels led by Dominic Grieve, the former attorney general, have tabled an amendment to the Customs Bill designed to keep the UK in a customs union. Mr Grieve says a ‘‘broad swathe’’ of Tories sympathise with his cause.
– Telegraph Group China has deployed long-range missiles on three distant outposts in the South China Sea.
According to US media reports, the weapons were installed in the Spratlys, an island chain that Xi Jinping, the president, said in 2015 would be not be militarised by China.
Tensions have been escalating in the disputed waters as China transforms partially submerged reefs into fortified islands.
The country says its military facilities are purely defensive and that it can do what it likes on its own territory. ‘‘Those who do not intend to be aggressive have no need to be worried or scared,’’ a foreign