Backstop plan will be ‘time-limited’, PM tells Brexiteers
Theres a May has promised that the Brexit backstop plan to keep the UK aligned with the EU’s customs union after 2020 will be ‘time-limited’ – if it is introduced at all.
the proposal to prevent a hard border in northern ireland if the UK and EU cannot agree new arrangements in time would apply only ‘in a very limited set of circumstances’, she said.
Her reassurances follow warnings from leading Brexit campaigners Michael Gove and Boris Johnson, who both have reservations about the proposal.
the backstop, which was signed off by the Prime Minister’s Brexit ‘war cabinet’, would mean the UK matching EU customs duties to avoid checks on goods crossing the irish border.
But some Brexiteers are unhappy with the proposals, which they fear could be indefinitely extended beyond the end of the transition period in December 2020.
reassuring them yesterday during a visit to the Jodrell Bank Observatory in cheshire, Mrs May said: ‘What we’re proposing is an alternative backstop proposal, but nobody wants this to be the solution that is achieved.
‘We want to achieve the right solution through our overall relationship with the european Union.
‘if it is necessary, it will be in a very limited set of circumstances for a limited time.
‘But we are working on achieving that commitment to northern ireland through our overall relationship with the european Union.’
Her remarks follow an intervention by environment Secretary Mr Gove who told a Policy exchange think-tank conference that ‘the whole point about a backstop is it is intended not to be implemented but it is there just in case’.
Foreign Secretary Mr Johnson has said Mrs May would be ‘true to her promises’ and deliver a deal with the EU.
Just a fortnight after dis- missing her preferred plan for a customs partnership as ‘crazy’, the Foreign Secretary said he believed Brexiteers’ fears of a ‘betrayal’ were unfounded.
But Mr Johnson stressed that ministers should not be planning to fail.
Speaking to reporters during a tour of latin America, Mr Johnson said: ‘Brexiteers fearing betrayal over the customs backstop must understand that the PM has been very clear that neither option is an outcome we desire – we want a deal with the EU and she will deliver it.
‘i’m convinced that the Prime Minister will be true to her promises of a Brexit deal that sees Britain come out of the customs union and single market, have borders as frictionless as possible, reject european court of Justice interference, control immigration and free to conduct unhindered free trade deals across the world.
‘We must now give the Prime Minister time and space to negotiate this Brexit vision.’
the backstop was proposed as an alternative to the EU’s own proposal, which would have kept northern ireland in the customs union.
But Brexiteers, including the tory chairman of the european research Group, Jacob rees-Mogg, have warned that people did not vote for a ‘perpetual purgatory’.
Democratic Unionist Party leader Arlene Foster said there had to be clarity about how long any such arrangement would last, telling an event in london: ‘there has to be a backstop to the backstop.’
‘It is there just in case’