Tory Brexit truce cracks over May’s compromise

THE Tory truce on Brexit was fracturing last night as MPs warned Theresa May they would not accept further compromises with Brussels.

The Prime Minister faced a backlash after David Davis confirmed some sectors of the UK economy could have to align with the EU after Brexit to resolve the Irish border issue.

Former leader Iain Duncan Smith – who has acted as a bridge between No 10 and Eurosceptic MPs until now – described the proposal as ‘intolerable’ and suggested it was time to walk away from the talks.

Eurosceptic Cabinet ministers also complained they were being kept in the dark about the extent of the compromises, both on the Irish border and the European Court of Justice.

Meanwhile the DUP, whose ten MPs prop up the Government, made it clear it would not accept the plans put forward by the Prime Minister on Monday to secure a breakthrough on a post-Brexit trade deal. Talks with European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker stalled on Monday after DUP leader Arlene Foster vetoed plans for a compromise on the status of the Irish border.

The Prime Minister had planned to return to Brussels today to try to complete a divorce deal with the EU.

But the trip was cancelled last night after Mrs Foster said she would not accept plans to retain ‘regulatory alignment’ between Northern Ireland and the Republic after Brexit.

Government sources insisted that the proposal on the Irish border was only a ‘backstop’ designed to open the door to trade talks this month.

A source said the proposal was limited to a few areas linked to the Good Friday Agreement, such as agriculture and energy.

But Mr Duncan Smith warned it could ‘box in’ the UK, making it a ‘supplicant’ to Brussels even after Brexit, and preventing the Government striking trade deals.

Mrs May began the day by telling the Cabinet she was ‘very close to getting agreement’ with the EU on a divorce deal, which she hopes could unlock the door to the start of trade talks. The PM told ministers there were ‘ only a small number of issues outstanding’.

But a Cabinet source said the detail of the plans had barely been discussed by Mrs May at a meeting of the Cabinet yesterday.

‘There is not a lot of clarity here,’ the source said. ‘ People want to be helpful to the PM in this, but they are befuddled by the approach she has taken. People want to see the detail and it is not forthcoming – that is a worry.’ Whitehall sources last night revealed that even Mr Davis did not learn that the phrase ‘regulatory alignment’ had been inserted into a proposed agreement with Brussels until Sunday.

One former minister last night warned the crisis could shorten Mrs May’s tenure in No 10, saying: ‘The PM is in a very weak position and she needs to wake up to the fact. She is making her position less and less tenable.’ One EU ambassador said: ‘ We cannot go on like this, with no idea what the UK wants. She just has to have the conversation with her own cabinet, and if that upsets someone, or someone resigns, so be it.’

Tory Sir Bill Cash said any commitment to align all or part of the UK’s laws with the EU would be ‘massively difficult’ to accept.

Former Brexit minister David Jones said the move would make it difficult to strike free trade deals with countries outside the EU. He called the idea ‘dangerous’, adding: ‘If we are aligned with the EU on agriculture, for example, it would be impossible to conclude any meaningful free trade agreements with third countries.’

Jacob Rees-Mogg described the issue as an ‘indelible red line’ and voiced ‘gratitude’ to the DUP for vetoing the deal.

‘We cannot go on like this’

LISTENING to the jubilant cries of Remoaners, anyone might think Monday’s setback over the Irish border issue represents an insuperable obstacle to Brexit, an excuse to ignore 17.4million voters and call the whole thing off.

But then, as so often where Irish politics is involved, reality risks being obscured by a pantomime of posturing. So let’s get a few facts straight.

Fact one is that Britain has no intention of imposing a post-Brexit ‘hard border’ between Northern Ireland and the Republic, with all the passport checks and other paraphernalia that entails.

Indeed, the Government spelt this out in August when it made clear the UK is happy to maintain the Common Travel Area that has existed throughout the British Isles since 1923 – long before the EU was invented. What’s more, both Dublin and Brussels say they want the same.

Theresa May has also given cast-iron assurances that Britain will do nothing to jeopardise the peace process. Again, all parties to the talks agree.

As for whether customs checks will be needed, clearly this will depend on the outcome of trade talks. But even if they are required, only Brussels suggests a hard border may be necessary.

For their part, British ministers are content to use the same barrier- free technology currently used to collect VAT, petrol and alcohol duties, whose rates differ between the UK and Ireland.

And for goodness’ sake let’s not forget the EU has many thousands of miles of troublefree land borders with non-members. So why should the 310 miles dividing Ireland, crossed mainly by local farmers and small businesses, present major problems?

Which brings us to fact number two: Economically speaking, the border is simply not worth squabbling about. The truth is that cross-border trade is worth a mere 5 per cent of Northern Ireland’s output, while just 1.6 per cent of the south’s imports and exports run between the republic and the north. Meanwhile, both parts of the island depend vastly more on trade with the British mainland.

Indeed, with the UK buying 14 per cent of the south’s exports, Ireland will be hit harder than anyone else if Brexit talks break down without a deal.

So why, in the name of sanity, is Ireland’s prime minister inventing non- existent problems, while threatening to scupper the talks if his demands are not met?

In 1916, the rebels behind Dublin’s Easter Rising had a slogan: ‘England’s difficulty is Ireland’s opportunity.’

Isn’t it hard to avoid the conclusion that Leo Varadkar has the same idea in mind, hoping he can win concessions by creating trouble for the UK? If so, he is playing a highly dangerous game with that 14 per cent of his country’s exports.

As for Democratic Unionist leader Arlene Foster, who vetoed Monday’s draft agreement, she should ask herself one question. Is she really prepared to bring down Mrs May – who guarantees Northern Ireland’s place in the UK – and risk installing the IRA-friendly Jeremy Corbyn in Number Ten?

No, settling the side-issue of the border is in the interests of everyone concerned. Let’s stop the posturing – and press on with the talks that matter.