Stop carping and get behind the Prime Minister, says Hunt
FOREIGN Secretary Jeremy Hunt yesterday urged Tory Brexiteers to end their carping about Theresa May’s drive for a deal with Brussels to strengthen her hand in the negotiations.
After an angry backlash in the party about the Prime Minister refusing to rule out extending the UK’s transition out of the bloc, he rejected claims she had “capitulated” to the EU.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The reason why this week has been difficult is because Theresa May has not buckled. She has held firm. She has stuck to her principles. It is precisely because she has not capitulated that we have not concluded this agreement.
“The one thing I would say to my colleagues is that the great strength of the EU in these negotiations is that the 27 EU nations have stayed united.”
He added: “We now need to do the same behind Theresa May to maximise her negotiating leverage in Brussels and make sure she does come back with that deal that honours the letter and spirit of the referendum decision.”
At Wednesday’s summit, she told EU leaders she was ready to consider a proposal to keep the option open of extending the post-Brexit “implementation period” by a few months. The period of continuing close links with Brussels is set to end in December 2020 but could be lengthened if new rules for the Irish border have not been finalised in time.
Mr Hunt said an EU proposal to extend the transition period after Britain leaves in March 2019 “might help” get a deal on the future relationship.
He said the length of the implementation period was not the main issue that needed to be resolved. That remained the so-called Northern Ireland “backstop” intended to ensure there was no return of a “hard border” with the Republic.
He added: “The substantive area of disagreement is whether we would agree to a backstop which would allow for customs barriers down the Irish Sea – the effective break-up of the United Kingdom – or whether we agree to a backstop which would allow the UK as a whole to stay in the customs union indefinitely. Neither of those are acceptable.”