What are our options?

THE CHEQUERS PLAN

Theresa May made clear yesterday that her July blueprint remains Britain’s negotiating position and expects her Cabinet to promote it.

But officials at No 10 know that as long as the EU continues to stonewall, the internal Tory Party voices who have never liked the deal will only get louder. The agreement would see the UK collect tariffs on behalf of the EU and follow a ‘common rulebook’ for goods but not services.

CANADA

Canada’s free trade deal with the EU came into force last October, following seven years of negotiation.

It grants preferential access to the single market without signing up to the EU’s four fundamental freedoms – goods, services, capital and labour.

It removes 99 per cent of customs duties and trade tariffs, but it would not give British financial services the access to the EU market they currently enjoy, and it does not solve the Northern Ireland border question.

NORWAY

Under the Norway model, the UK would sit alongside Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein as part of the European Economic Area (EEA).

It would give Britain the freedom to strike trade deals with countries around the world. But free movement of people would continue, which would be unacceptable to many Tory Eurosceptics.

NO DEAL

The nuclear option. But Mrs May repeated her pledge yesterday that ‘no deal is better than a bad deal’.

Britain would make a clean break from the EU and fall back on its membership of the World Trade Organisation. It could also save Britain paying the £39 billion ‘divorce bill’.

BLIND BREXIT

This would involve a vague November statement on future trade in a bid to finalise the divorce payment and transition deal. The details of the future trading relationship would be sorted out at an unspecified later date.