Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
MAPLE GRIEF
Davis blunders again as he admits UK will seek ‘Canada plus’ package
BREXIT Secretary David Davis has dropped another clanger by confessing he is aiming for an EU trade deal based on Europe’s agreement with Canada.
It smashes the Government’s longstanding position that it will negotiate a bespoke settlement.
Mr Davis revealed the bid for what he called a “Canada plus, plus, plus” pact as Theresa May prepares for a showdown with her divided Cabinet.
On Friday the Prime Minister snatched a last-gasp stage one agreement set to be rubber-stamped in Brussels this week, allowing talks to switch to a future trade relationship.
This will force the Cabinet to finally discuss what ministers think a trade agreement should include – talks that threaten to blow apart the Tories’ fragile truce.
Remain supporters such as Philip Hammond, Amber Rudd and Greg Clark are expected to line up on the soft Brexit side, with hard Leavers such as Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Andrea Leadsom on the other.
The potentially explosive meeting is pencilled in for Tuesday next week. In a text to a backbencher, one unimpressed minister has reportedly called Mrs May “f***ing useless”.
Tory grandee Ken Clarke has urged the PM to confront “extremist Brexiteers of the hard right”.
Mr Davis dubbed what he wants “Canada plus, plus, plus” because it would include areas such as financial services that are not part of the EU’S trade deal with Canada, which scrapped 99% of tariffs. He also said last week’s agreement was a “statement of intent” and not binding.
Meanwhile, Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer refused three times to rule out a second EU referendum. He said: “Things are moving so fast it’s hard to know what’s going to come next.”