Half-in deal won’t cut it

40 OF MAY’S MPS OPPOSE IT Exact details of what’s to be voted on still to be revealed.

At least 40 lawmakers in Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party are willing to vote down her possible Brexit deal if it leaves the United Kingdom “half in and half out” of the European Union (EU), a senior lawmaker said yesterday.

“My estimate is that there are at least 40 colleagues who are not going to accept a ‘half in, half out’ Chequers deal or indeed a backstop that leaves us in the internal market and the customs union,” lawmaker Steve Baker told BBC radio. Baker served as a junior Brexit minister in May’s government until he resigned in protest at her Brexit proposals.

If May secures a deal with the EU, she has to get the British parliament to approve it and would need the backing of about 320 lawmakers to get approval.

If 40 of her lawmakers voted against a possible deal, the fate of the government and exit process would depend on the opposition Labour Party, which has indicated it will vote against almost any deal May might secure.

Under May’s proposals, Britain will seek a free trade area for goods with the EU, largely by accepting a “common rule book” for goods and British participation in EU agencies that provide authorisations for goods. Some Brexiteers say those proposals would ensure the EU kept control over swathes of the British economy and is thus counter to the spirit of her pledge to leave the EU Customs Union and the Single Market.

“We are awaiting the details of exactly what we are going to be asked to vote for,” Baker said. “In the end the EU is not entitled to split the UK and it’s not entitled to constrain how we regulate our economy and govern ourselves after we leave.”

Without an approved deal, the UK would move to customs arrangements set by the World Trade Organisation for external states with no preferential deals. “No deal is better than a bad deal,” Baker said. “We need to be unafraid to go forward without an agreement.” –