EU trade tensions

Industry chiefs back Clark after he claims that thousands of car jobs are at risk

CABInet tensions on Brexit boiled over yesterday after the Business Secretary led a concerted drive by Remainers in parliament and big business to prevent a clean break with Brussels.

eurosceptic tories accused Greg Clark of scaremongering after he claimed thousands of jobs in the car industry would be lost if the UK leaves the eU’s customs union.

He suggested 3,500 jobs were at stake at toyota alone because of the industry’s reliance on seamless customs checks.

the CBI and British Chambers of Commerce both issued statements backing mr Clark within minutes of his comments in a BBC interview.

Former home secretary Amber Rudd – who quit the Cabinet only a week ago over the Windrush scandal – led a wave of pro-Remain tories in publicly backing mr Clark’s position. She tweeted that mr Clark was ‘quite right, making the case clearly and yes, passionately, for a Brexit that protects existing jobs and future investment’.

A string of pro-eU tories urged theresa may to face down the party’s eurosceptics, even if it meant some ministers ‘flounced out’.

mr Clark warned it was ‘possible’ that it could take until 2023 to develop the technology needed to implement any new customs arrangement – and said the UK should effectively remain in the customs union until that point to minimise disruption for business.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid and Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson joined with Brexiteers at a meeting of the prime minister’s Brexit ‘war cabinet’ last week to block a new ‘customs partnership’. mr Clark’s intervention on the Andrew marr Show appeared to be an attempt to revive the plan.

one Cabinet source said: ‘Greg appears to be re-fighting the referendum.

‘Instead of listening to vested interests he should pay more attention to the 17.4million who voted to take back control of our trade policy.

‘the customs partnership has been roundly rejected – making threats to keep it alive is just desperate.’

Another source said: ‘Greg seems to be saying we have to represent the interests of big business. I thought we were here to represent the interests of the people, who voted for Brexit.’

Jacob Rees-mogg, chairman of the eurosceptic european Research Group of tory mps, told ItV’s peston on Sunday: ‘this has been so thoroughly discredited that you would have thought it would have come to an end by now.’

pro-Brexit ex-Cabinet minister priti patel said the customs partnership plan was ‘a complete non-starter’ and would ‘keep the UK in the eU in all but name’.

She added: ‘the Government should focus on securing a future trade arrangement which fully respects the referendum result.’

there was irritation among some eurosceptics that mr Clark seemed to have been ‘licensed’ by no10 to speak in favour of a plan blocked in Cabinet. A source said: ‘Greg gets sent on the marr show to promote the pm’s plan, while we get told to shut up.’

Downing Street dismissed as ‘nonsense’ claims it was orchestrating efforts to revive support for the customs partnership, which had been the pm’s preferred option.

Writing in the Sun on Sunday, mrs may said she had an ‘absolute determination to make a success of Brexit, by leaving the single market and customs union and building a new relationship with eU partners that takes back control of our borders, our laws and our money’.

She said the UK was ‘making good progress towards that goal and we will carry on doing so with resolution in the months ahead’.

She gave no clue as to her plans for future customs arrangements. After last week’s Cabinet meeting, mrs may ordered officials to carry out urgent work on the new customs partnership and an alternative plan, ‘maximum facilitation’, which would use technology to streamline customs checks.

Before the meeting, David Davis, liam Fox and Boris Johnson were all reported to be considering quitting if the customs partnership plan got the go-ahead.

one pro-Brexit minister last night warned: ‘people do resign on principle and this could well be too much for some. the potential for chaos in the Government is very real.’

But former education secretary nicky morgan told the BBC that if ministers did quit ‘it would be because they’d flounced out…life always moves on’.

pro-Remain ex-minister Anna Soubry said mr Clark was ‘eminently sensible’ and urged the pm to ‘see off’ tory eurosceptics.