Top Tories turn on each other in Brexit row
THERESA May’s Cabinet heavyweights turned on each other over Brexit last night.
David Davis accused Philip Hammond of ‘inconsistent thinking’ over how long Britain would be tied to the European Union.
Mr Hammond had already taken a swing at Boris Johnson’s position of being in favour of ‘having our cake and eating it’.
Speaking at a conference in London, Mr Davis pledged that Britain would be fully out of the EU when the current parliament ends in 2022.
The Brexit Secretary said he believed negotiations would be completed by the two-year deadline in March 2019.
Asked if the UK would walk straight out of the Customs Union rather than have a transitional arrangement to ease the departure, Mr Davis replied: ‘I would have thought so.’
He told the event, hosted by the Times: ‘The Chancellor said a number of things that are not quite consistent with each other. One of the most important things he’s said is that it’s got to be done before the next election.’
Mr Davis’s comments came as Mr Hammond repeated his call for a transitional deal to avoid a ‘disruptive and dangerous cliff edge’ in trading links with the European Union after Brexit.
Speaking in Berlin to the CDU Economic Council, he insisted there had to be a smooth path to the new arrangements and warned the EU against putting petty politics ahead of economic logic.
Without putting a timescale on the transitional process, the Chancellor said firms needed certainty ‘whether it is the British importer renewing a contract with a French component supplier, the German car exporter investing in its
‘I discourage talk of cake’
UK distribution network, the Dutch grower who is making a contract with a British supermarket chain or the Italian electricity company hedging its exposures through London’s financial markets’. He added: ‘They all need certainty, well ahead of time, that they won’t have tariffs suddenly imposed on them part-way through their contracts, or that their shipments won’t face customs delays and bureaucratic costs, or that the enforceability of their contracts will not be called into question.
‘Early agreement on these transitional arrangements, so that trade between our countries can carry on flowing smoothly, will reduce uncertainty, unlock investment decisions, instil business confidence and protect jobs.’
In a jab at Mr Johnson, Mr Hammond quoted former German chancellor Ludwig Erhard, who said ‘compromise is the art of dividing a cake in a such a way that everyone believes he has the biggest piece’.
Mr Hammond added: ‘ Wise words with some applicability to the Brexit negotiations although I try to discourage talk of cake among my colleagues.
‘For if we get the negotiations between the UK and the European Union right and reach a deal that protects jobs, business, and prosperity across the continent of Europe by maintaining trade flows, and avoiding dangerous cliff edges, then we can maximise the size of the cake and each enjoy a bigger piece.’
A No 10 spokesman said yesterday: ‘ The position the Prime Minister has set out many times hasn’t changed. It’s not in anyone’s interest for there to be a cliff edge.
‘We want to give certainty to businesses. That’s the position of David Davis and Philip Hammond also. We will be leaving the Customs Union.
‘The phases of implementation and so on will all be subject to negotiation.’