MAY DANCES TO HARDLINE TUNE
BREXITEERS FORCE LEADER’S HAND PM bows to Tory pressure over Customs Union
THERESA May has insisted she will take the UK out of the Customs Union after hard-line Tory Brexiteers fired a warning shot across her premiership.
Downing Street were at pains yesterday to emphasise the Prime Minister will not back down on leaving the Customs Union, as Tory pro-Brexit MPs signalled any backsliding would mean the end of her tenure.
May is under pressure from the Tory right after the Government suffered a defeat on the EU Withdrawal Bill in the House of Lords on the issue of staying in a UK-EU customs union after Brexit.
MPs will get a chance to debate the issue on Thursday ahead of the Bill returning to the Commons for a series of parliamentary battles in the coming weeks.
During a local election campaign visit in Dudley, West Midlands, May insisted she would not change course. She said: “Coming out of the Customs Union means we will be free to have those deals that suit the UK.
“But I also recognise the importance to businesses of being able to have as frictionless a border as possible into the European Union.”
Downing Street insisted the Government’s position had not changed since May’s Mansion House speech in March.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “We have put forward two options.”
The options are either a “customs partnership”, effectively collecting duties for Brussels for goods arriving in the UK but intended for EU markets, or a “highly streamlined” arrangement making use of technology and regulatory co-operation.
Many Remain-supporting MPs believe keeping a customs union with the EU would limit the economic difficulties caused by Brexit and would help provide a solution to the Irish border issue.