Tory turmoil over PM’s open-ended Brexit plan

THERESA May last night faced a Cabinet backlash as she warned senior ministers she is ready to agree a ‘ temporary’ customs union with the EU that will have no formal end date.

The Prime Minister told her inner cabinet the concession is needed to unlock stalled Brexit talks.

The move could see the UK remain in a customs union with the EU in all but name after Brexit until a permanent solution to the Irish border problem can be found.

A previous pledge that the UK would have made a clean break with the EU by the end of 2021 ‘at the latest’ is to be dropped.

But sources insist that the plan remains ‘temporary’ and is likely to last ‘months, not years’. No formal proposal was put to ministers at last night’s meeting, but they were asked to agree the ‘direction of travel’ ahead of a crunch Brussels summit next week.

Sources said Liam Fox, Sajid Javid, Gavin Williamson, Jeremy Hunt, Michael Gove and Dominic Raab all challenged Mrs May over the concession, although no decisions were taken.

One Cabinet source predicted the issue could lead to resignations in the coming days, saying: ‘This is going to be a big test for some ministers. Are they willing to accept assurances that this is temporary if those words have no legal force? If not, then they surely have to resign.’

International Trade Secretary Dr Fox, whose plans for a string of new trade deals would be severely limited inside a customs union, has told friends that the proposal would ‘make life very difficult for me’.

Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom and Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey – who were not at last night’s meeting – are also said to be unhappy about any proposal that does not contain a firm end date.

But Government Chief Whip Julian Smith last night urged Tory MPs and ministers to rally round, saying: ‘The Prime Minister and the Government are conducting a complex negotiation that is going well and we should be backing the Prime Minister.’

The concession came as Mrs May’s Democratic Unionist Party partners stepped up warnings that they are willing to pull the plug on her Government if she agrees a Brexit border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

Proposals for a so-called ‘temporary customs arrangement’ were

‘Ministers may quit over this’

first announced in June as part of ‘backstop’ plans to resolve the Irish border problem.

At the time, the then Brexit secretary David Davis threatened to resign unless a clear end date was inserted, forcing Mrs May to accept the plan would be ‘time limited’.

But Brussels has been implacable in its opposition to an end date, saying the ‘backstop’ plan must be ‘all-weather’. Mrs May’s chief Brexit adviser Olly Robbins is said to have conceded the point during negotiations in Brussels this week.

Last night Eurosceptic Tory MPs sensed betrayal. Jacob Rees-Mogg said: ‘Income tax was supposed to be temporary. Gladstone said it would expire in 1860. Likewise, the 1911 Parliament Act says it is temporary. Both are still here.’

In other developments, former PM Sir John Major claimed the Eurosceptic ‘b******s’ destabilising Mrs May are worse than those who undermined his own premiership;

Eurosceptic Conservative MP Mark Pritchard suggested a Tory leadership contest could rushed be through in as little as a fortnight – opening up the possibility that Mrs May could be ousted before Britain leaves the EU. Brussels and London both moved to play down expectations of a major breakthrough at next week’s crunch EU summit.

Meanwhile Britain’s official economic forecaster suggested last night a ‘no deal’ Brexit could be as disastrous as the three- day week was in the 1970s. The Office for Budget Responsibility warned there was no precedent for what it referred to as a ‘disorderly Brexit’, making accurate forecasting difficult.

But it said it was ‘worth noting’ that the three-day week of 1974 led to a fall in output of 3 per cent.

The OBR warned ‘no deal’ could lead to higher prices, banks reducing credit and shortages of vital goods.

AS the Brexit negotiations enter their final stage, the atmosphere in Westminster has reached fever-pitch. MPs from all parties – and particularly the warring Tory tribes – can’t even wait to see the details of the deal before taking to the trenches and lobbing grenades.

But it is Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party which has been making the loudest noises, with its leader Arlene Foster speaking of ‘ blood red lines’ over the treatment of the province after we leave.

By abstaining on an insignificant vote on Wednesday night, the DUP put a shot across the Government’s bows – and was even threatening to vote down the Budget if it doesn’t get its way.

Yes, this may just be an attempt to heap pressure on the Prime Minister and send a signal to Brussels about what they will, and won’t, swallow.

But if meant in earnest, the DUP is playing a very dangerous game indeed. If its members undermine Mrs May, do they think they will find another Tory prime minister who is as ardent a unionist?

More likely, voting down the Budget would collapse the Government and precipitate a general election. Then the DUP would be faced with the prospect of Jeremy Corbyn, a man who cosied up to the IRA, entering No 10.

Is that really what they want?