Brexiteers’ EU Bill changes accepted
THERESA May has bowed to pressure from Tory Brexiteers after accepting crucial changes to plans for leaving the European Union.
Eurosceptics tabled amendments to the Government’s Customs Bill aimed at imposing strict conditions on the Prime Minister after she produced a plan at Chequers that would keep the UK closely tied to Brussels’ rules on goods and food.
A Brexiteer source said the move confirmed that “Chequers is dead on arrival” after the Government accepted all four reforms put forward by Eurosceptics such as Jacob Rees-Mogg, Sir Bernard Jenkin, Priti Patel and Iain Duncan Smith.
Tory Remainer Anna Soubry suggested Mr Rees-Mogg was now “running Britain”.
Labour MP Stephen Kinnock accused the PM of “dancing to the tune” of the European Research Group (ERG) of Tory Brexiteers and claimed that by “capitulating”, the Chequers deal is now “dead in the water”.
But Mrs May insisted the amendments do not change the blueprint agreed at her country residence.
She told MPs: “He is absolutely wrong in his reference to the agreement that was reached at Chequers, I would not have gone through all the work that I did to ensure that we reached that agreement only to see it changed in some way through these Bills.”
Mrs May faced a potential revolt on the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Bill, often referred to as the Customs Bill.
Downing Street insisted the amendments it had accepted were still consistent with the plans in the Chequers agreement but the move may limit the Government’s room for manoeuvre in EU exit talks.
“We will be accepting these four amendments because we feel they are consistent with the white paper we published last week,” a source said.
Sir Bernard said: “These amendments were only ever about clarifying Government policy, that the UK will not join a customs union with the EU, nor agree to split Northern Ireland from the UK for customs purposes, that we are leaving the EU VAT regime, and any customs arrangement with the EU is not one-sided.
“By accepting these amendments, the Government does no more than confirm our understanding of stated Government policy.”
Conservative former Cabinet minister Ken Clarke told MPs that the Government’s adoption of ERG amendments was “directly inconsistent with the white paper of a week ago”.
Former Cabinet minister Ms Patel, who tabled the amendment calling for reciprocal action on collecting tariffs, said the move was “constructive”.
“We have been calling for change, we have been calling for more engagement and the wider arguments to be heard,” she said.
But Peter Bone, another signatory to the amendments, said the whole situation was a “shambles” and called for the Chequers plan to be taken off the table.