Return of Max Fac? PM’s ‘alternative’ to backstop

THERESA May tried to win over Cabinet Brexiteers yesterday by opening the door to using technology to solve the Irish border problem.

The Prime Minister told the meeting of senior ministers the deal with the EU allowed for the prospect of ‘alternative’ solutions to using the controversial Northern Irish backstop.

Her comments were seen as an attempt to revive the so-called ‘Max Fac’ – maximum facilitation – solution which was killed off by the EU. The move could help win over Leave MPs threatening to vote down the deal.

A Whitehall source pointed out the Withdrawal Agreement allows for ‘alternative arrangements’ to the backstop. They added: ‘I’m not sure everyone has fully grasped that point yet.’

The backstop has enraged Brexiteers because it keeps the UK in a customs union and Northern Ireland in large parts of the single market. Last night there were signs Mrs May was winning over the so-called ‘gang of five’ – Michael Gove, Liam Fox, Chris Grayling, Andrea Leadsom and Penny Mordaunt – who have pushed for changes to the deal. One cabinet source said: ‘It was a very productive meeting.’

Eurosceptic ministers are also urging Mrs May to push the EU for more detail on how the UK could get out of the backstop, and to threaten to withhold billions from the ‘divorce bill’.

But last night sources in the European Research Group of Tory MPs dismissed Mrs May’s words as a ‘fig leaf’.

And EU sources in Brussels appeared to reject the idea, saying the technology ‘doesn’t exist’. One added: ‘It’s a possibility but not a solution in 018.’