Save Chequers
Cabinet gives her one last chance to sell plan to Brussels
THERESA May has been given nine days to save her Chequers plan.
The Cabinet will give the Prime Minister one last chance to sell her proposals to EU leaders at a summit next week.
But ministers have warned they will demand a Plan B if there is a repeat of the humiliating rejection she faced in Salzburg last month.
European Union negotiators have been talking up the chances of reaching an agreement at the meeting next Wednesday on issues such as the Irish border. But they are still refusing to accept the proposals set out in Mrs May’s Chequers plan on how a future trade deal would work.
The European Commission is expected to offer the UK a ‘supercharged’ free trade deal later this week, but will reject about 60 to 70 per cent of the Prime Minister’s blueprint, including the demand for frictionless trade.
Despite the anticipated setback, ministers are planning to hold off on moves to force Mrs May into ditching her Chequers plan until after next week’s meeting in Brussels.
A Cabinet source said: ‘Ministers will let her go to the European Council sticking to her Chequers plan. If the Tory party conference achieved anything, it gave her that extra space. But if there is another Salzburg-style rejection at the summit then things will start to get fruity.
‘There will be pressure from various sides. ‘People will then be saying, “what is Plan B? You now need to tell us that”.’
Brexit has been kept off the agenda for tomorrow’s Cabinet meeting, where ministers will instead discuss the Budget, racial equality, world mental health day, the UN General Assembly and this week’s illegal wildlife trade conference.
A source said: ‘The Budget is an easy topic to keep everybody talking about anything other than Brexit. Every department will be making their case for more money.’
However, Mrs May is expected to present her latest thinking on Brexit – including a revised proposal on how to resolve the Irish problem – at a Cabinet meeting the following Tuesday, before she flies to Brussels. Hopes of a breakthrough in Brexit talks continued to rise yesterday as Ireland said the chances of a deal were good. Dublin’s deputy prime minister Simon Coveney told Sky News: ‘The withdrawal treaty is already about 90 per cent agreed in terms of text – the issues that have not been signed off yet relate predominantly to Ireland and the two negotiating teams need to lock themselves in a room for the next ten days or so.’
The optimistic remarks came after both European Commission president Jean- Claude Juncker and his counterpart at the European Council, Donald Tusk, delivered unusually upbeat messages at the weekend. Mr Juncker said: ‘I have
‘People will say, what is Plan B?’
reason to think that the rapprochement potential between both sides has increased in recent days.’ Mr Tusk said the EU was trying to agree a deal this month, adding: ‘I think there is a chance to have an accord by the end of the year.’
Meanwhile, prominent Tory Brexiteers Iain Duncan Smith and Jacob Rees-Mogg yesterday said they would be willing to allow EU officials to be stationed at UK ports after Brexit.
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, former Tory leader Mr Duncan Smith said the compromise would answer some of the concerns about the Irish border. He said: ‘We can... (conduct) regulatory and customs checks together in a way that respects the EU’s single market, by building on systems already in place at the channel ports.’
A No 10 source said: ‘We have always said we are working hard for a deal this autumn. However, there remain big issues to work through, and as the Prime Minister has said, this will require movement on the EU side.’
Japan would welcome Britain to the fast-growing Trans-Pacific Partnership trade bloc with ‘open arms’, its prime minister said yesterday. Shinzo Abe said he was in favour of the UK joining the 11-member group, which aims to eliminate 98 per cent of tariffs. The TPP is a wide-ranging trade agreement between 11 countries, including Japan, Malaysia, Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand.