Eurosceptics line up a rival Brexit blueprint

EUROSCEPTIC Tories are planning to defy Theresa May by publishing their own alternative blueprint for Brexit, it emerged yesterday.

A policy paper setting out a framework for a full break with the EU is set to be published by the European Research Group of MPs and peers next month.

It is expected to set out a different vision for Britain’s post-Brexit future relationship with Brussels in contrast to the close customs links backed by the Prime Minister.

Defiance

Senior Tory Jacob ReesMogg, chairman of the ERG, is understood to be drawing up the proposals with the help of former Brexit minister Steve Baker.

Up to 80 backbench Tories could support the plan in open defiance of the Government’s position on Brexit.

And the move is expected to intensify the party row over Europe in the run-up to the annual Tory conference in Birmingham this autumn.

Calls for a “positive” alternative vision for Brexit have been growing among Tories since Mrs May’s Cabinet agreed her compromise plan during an away-day summit at her Chequers country residence last month.

The agreed plan, including a “common rulebook” covering trade in goods, led to the resignations of senior ministers Boris Johnson and David Davis. ERG members are understood to favour a freetrade deal similar to that recently agreed between the EU and Canada.

Such a model could allow tariff-free trade without the UK remaining part of the EU’s single market or customs union.

The paper is expected to say Britain could thrive on the basis of World Trade Organisation rules if Brussels refuses a similar deal.

Former Cabinet minister Lord Lilley, an ERG member, wrote yesterday in a newspaper article that Mrs May’s plan was “moribund” and an alternative was needed.

He said: “A trade deal would be the best outcome. No deal is likely and would be a good second best, making a better deal possible later.”

One ERG source was quoted by a newspaper yesterday as saying: “We do not accept the Chequers proposals but need to make the case for an alternative.” But the group is facing a challenge from a rival faction committed to backing the Mrs May’s Brexit plans.

The new Brexit Delivery Group is calling for a “pragmatic Brexit outcome”.

A fresh Brexit legal challenge has been launched at the High Court by British expats living in the EU.

The UK in EU Challenge group is calling for a judicial review based on what they claim was cheating by proLeave organisations in the run-up to the referendum.

SO THE Eurosceptics are coming up with an alternative plan to the Chequers deal to leave the EU. Bring it on. It will be interesting to see what they have to offer and what kind of a deal the Brexiteers think they could pull off. And they should be given serious consideration – there is nothing to say that they will not come up with a feasible plan.

But they would do well to get a move on. Britain is moving towards her Brexit destiny and there has been a considerable amount of fudging and wasting time along the way. The Brexiteers are serious people and they deserve to be listened to just as much as their counterpart Remainers.

But they can’t claim a better idea and then delay discussing it with the country. They need to lay their cards on the table right now.