We’ll be watching like hawks to protect Brexit, Tories tell Hammond
TORY Eurosceptics last night warned Philip Hammond they would be ‘watching like hawks’ to ensure a controversial ‘transitional deal’ on Brexit does not become permanent.
With the Prime Minister and several leading Brexit-supporting ministers out of the country, the Chancellor yesterday seized the opportunity to set out his own vision for a so-called ‘soft landing’ exit from the EU.
Mr Hammond said there was now a ‘broad consensus’ in the Cabinet behind the idea of pursuing a transition deal lasting up to three years to smooth the path to Brexit. This could see free movement continue in all but name for another five years, as well as potentially requiring Britain to continue paying in to the Brussels budget and accept rulings from European judges.
Mr Hammond said Britain would exit the single market and customs union when leaving the EU in March 2019. But he said transitional arrangements would mean little will have changed the day after Brexit, with ‘many arrangements remaining very similar to how they were the day before we exited the European Union’.
The Government could also be prevented from completing new trade deals with countries such as the United States and Australia during the period.
Mr Hammond said the transition could last for up to three years, but insisted it would be completed by the scheduled time of the next election in June 2022.
The idea of an extended transition was seized on by Remainers last night. Labour MP Chuka Umunna described Mr Hammond’s intervention as ‘refreshing’, saying he was bringing a ‘welcome dose of reality to the Brexit debate’.
Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair’s former chief of staff, suggested the transitional arrangements could become permanent. ‘What is good is that the debate is moving towards staying in the single market, at least for a transitional period – and maybe that period will become indefinite,’ he said.
Several pro-Brexit Cabinet ministers, including Liam Fox and Michael Gove, have said they would accept a transitional deal in recent days.
But Eurosceptic MPs remain cautious. Charlie Elphicke said: ‘The danger is we end up in a situation like the Eagles song Hotel California, where we can check out but never leave. We need to make sure that we do in fact leave the EU in more than just name.
‘Parking us in the European Economic Area, even for a short period, is the worst of all worlds, as we would still be bound by free movement and the ECJ but have no say over the rules we have to follow and no right to strike our own trade deals.’
Fellow Tory Peter Bone said there were ‘significant worries’ about the idea, adding: ‘I could not accept having the European Court of Justice continuing to have supremacy over us for a single day after we have left
‘The Remainers are playing a long game which I think they hope will eventually mean we do not end up leaving.’
Jacob Rees-Mogg said he was ‘not worried, but cautious’ about a transitional deal. He added: ‘It all depends on the detail. We will be watching like hawks.’
Mr Hammond said a transitional agreement was needed to reassure business that new customs and immigration systems would be ready when the UK eventually severs its ties with Brussels. He suggested failure to do so risks a situation where shops could run out of products such as Spanish olives because of customs hold-ups.
The Chancellor said nobody was seeking a ‘cliff edge’ end to mass immigration from the EU.
‘At the present time, we have a high level of dependence on foreign workers in the UK,’ he said.
‘Nobody wants us to go over a cliff edge in March 2019 where suddenly our health services are unable to cope, social care is unable to deliver.’
Mr Hammond insisted that the UK would be free to start negotiating free trade deals during a transition – something disputed by some in the EU – but accepted it may be impossible to implement them during that time.
Meanwhile, Maltese prime minister Joseph Muscat, who was involved in Brexit talks last year when he held the presidency of the European Council, yesterday said he was ‘hopeful’ it could be halted.
‘For the first time, I’m starting to believe that Brexit will not happen,’ he said. I see encouraging signs that the tide is turning.’
‘Worst of all worlds’
WItH theresa May safely out of the country and hiking with her husband high in the Alps, Chancellor Philip Hammond seized the opportunity yesterday to indulge in that favourite tory pastime: treachery.
Showing shameless disloyalty to his leader, ‘Spreadsheet Phil’ took to the airwaves to declare a new, softer Government policy on Brexit. He said that although Britain will still leave the EU in March 2019, there will now be a further ‘transition period’ of three years where virtually nothing will change.
true, Mrs May had already conceded there would need to be a short period of adjustment beyond the March 2019 deadline to avoid disruption to trade and services. But this is a major shift.
An extra three years will take us nearly up to the next election. During that time, we would almost certainly remain tied to the single market and customs union and therefore be forced to continue allowing free movement of EU nationals.
And as long as we stay attached to the single market, Brussels will surely insist that British judges remain subservient to the European Court.
So it will be five years before we seize back control – at least. At the end of that time, who’s to say there won’t be a further ‘transition period’? Could we find ourselves stuck indefinitely in a bizarre half-in, half-out limbo?
this is not what 17.4million people voted for in the referendum. they wanted to take back sovereignty – the right to decide for ourselves who can and who cannot come in and out of this country, and the right to make our own laws. Anything less would be a betrayal of those people’s votes.
tactically, this announcement is also madness. By signalling so early to Brussels that we are in no hurry to leave, we give them carte blanche to delay and obfuscate. Only yesterday, the prime minister of Malta, Joseph Muscat, said he now believes Brexit will never happen and other EU leaders are undoubtedly beginning to think – and hope – the same.
In any case, with our national debt now standing at a terrifying £1.75trillion and public spending still not under control, why isn’t Mr Hammond concentrating all his attentions on his day job at the Exchequer instead of acting as if he were running the country?
His performance as Chancellor so far has been deeply unimpressive. In his first Budget he tried to saddle five million self-employed workers with a sharp rise in their National Insurance contributions. Just a week later he was forced into a humiliating U-turn after it was pointed out that this was in direct breach of a key manifesto commitment.
He has also pushed back the date when Britain’s annual deficit will be wiped out from 2020 to 2025, claiming Britain is ‘weary’ of austerity. So every year until then our total debt, along with the huge cost of servicing it, will continue to grow – placing an even more onerous burden on our children and grandchildren.
the biggest mystery, however, is why Mr Hammond – rather than the Brexit Secretary, Foreign Secretary, or indeed Mrs May – should be pronouncing on Brexit at all when he has no direct involvement in the negotiations.
He was, of course, a fervent Remainer during the referendum campaign and closely associated with George Osborne’s Project Fear. Having lost that battle, many will suspect that he is still a Remainer intent on sabotaging Brexit.
this, let’s not forget, is a man who would have been sacked if the tories had won their expected majority at the general election in June. He doesn’t speak for the Prime Minister, he doesn’t speak for the Cabinet – and he certainly doesn’t speak for the British people.