More worries for PM’s Brexit plan
DOWNING STREET has insisted there is no alternative to Theresa May’s Chequers blueprint for Brexit, while MPs have said any new trade deals should include human rights clauses.
With 200 days until Britain leaves the EU, the Prime Minister was warned yesterday that pursuing her plan could lead to a “catastrophic split” in the Tory party.
Former Brexit minister Steve Baker, who quit over the proposals earlier this year, said he was “gravely concerned” for the future of the party if she presses ahead.
Mr Baker, a leading figure in the proBrexit Tory European Research Group, said the party’s annual conference in Birmingham, starting on September 30, could prove a decisive moment as Mrs May is forced to acknowledge the scale of grassroots opposition to her proposals.
“If we come out of conference with her hoping to get Chequers through on the back of Labour votes, I think the EU negotiators would probably understand that if that were done, the Tory party would suffer the catastrophic split which thus far we have managed to avoid,” he said.
Number 10, however, said that critics of the plan had yet to come forward with a credible alternative which would avoid the return of a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.
“Chequers is the only plan on the table which will deliver on the will of the British people while avoiding a hard border in Northern Ireland,” the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said.
Number 10 said Mrs May would be chairing a special meeting of the Cabinet on Thursday to discuss the ongoing preparations for a no-deal Brexit if Britain fails to secure an agreement with Brussels.
Meanwhile, the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee said there was little clarity from the Government on how it intends to balance future business agreements and the need to uphold commitments on individual rights.
MPs said the UK faces challenges promoting its agenda overseas due to a “global backlash against the international human rights system”.
The committee’s report stated there were “conflicting priorities” between human rights and trade.
However, the study said it was in Britain’s long-term commercial interest to back human rights.
The MPs said: “The Government will face conflicting priorities between human rights and other Government policies, especially trade deals.
“This may create short term conflicts, but the prioritisation of human rights is in the UK’s long term commercial, as well as moral, interest.”
Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee Tom Tugendhat said: “The UK cannot afford to be complacent.”
He also warned that engagement with countries such as Burma risked “sending the wrong signals” over human rights issues.