Tory Remoaners plot another bid to keep us tied to EU
DIEHARD Tory Remainers last night launched a fresh drive to thwart Theresa May’s plans for a clean break with Brussels.
Four senior Tories – including two whose constituencies voted for Brexit – signed a cross-party motion that will force a Commons vote next week on keeping Britain in a customs union with the EU after Brexit.
Staying in the customs union would cross one of the Prime Minister’s negotiating ‘red lines’, and limit the Government’s ability to strike new free trade deals.
Ministers suffered a defeat on the issue in the Lords on Wednesday night, when peers voted by 348 to 225 to require ministers to explore the option of staying in the customs union. Yesterday, 11 select committee chairmen joined together to force a vote next Wednesday calling on the Government to make staying in a customs union with the EU ‘an objective in negotiations’ with Brussels.
Signatories include former education secretary Nicky Morgan, former attorney general Dominic Grieve, former justice minister Bob Neill and health committee chairman Sarah Wollaston.
A majority of voters in Miss Morgan’s and Miss Wollaston’s constituencies voted for Brexit in the referendum. Former Chancellor Kenneth Clarke and Tory backbencher Heidi Allen also indicated they would back staying in a customs union.
In a joint statement, Mrs Morgan and former Labour Cabinet minister Yvette Cooper said they had ‘concluded that backbench MPs should get the chance of an early constructive debate and vote on this crucial issue, not bound by the party whips, but informed by committee evidence instead’.
The pair said the case for a customs union was ‘ overwhelming’, adding: ‘With just
‘Quasi-colonial status’
six months to go before the Brexit deal needs to be concluded, we are running out of time for Parliament to help to shape the negotiations.
‘Yet many of our backbench committees have forensically gathered evidence on different Brexit options and the practical implications.’
Former Tory chancellor Lord Lawson yesterday accused those seeking to keep Britain in a customs union of ‘trying to reverse the referendum’.
Lord Lawson said some proBrussels ‘fanatics’ would ‘never back down’, but he warned that staying in a customs union would make it impossible to deliver the benefits of Brexit – and make Britain a rule-taker. He added: ‘If you are in a customs union without being in the EU you are being governed in effect by the EU – that is a quasi-colonial status.
‘You cannot effectively leave the EU – as the Government has made clear – without leaving both the customs union and single market.’
A spokesman for Mrs May said: ‘ Our position on the customs union remains the same – we are leaving the customs union.’
Labour – which supports a customs union – will fight to keep the Lords amendment, shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said.
Britain’s ‘divorce bill’ for leaving the EU could be billions more than the Treasury believes, official auditors have warned.
The Treasury has estimated the UK will have to pay Brussels between £35 billion and £39 billion to facilitate Brexit.
But the National Audit Office said the true figure could be significantly higher because of financial commitments not enumerated by the Treasury.