The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
May defends plans to leave customs union
Prime Minister rules out changing course
Theresa May has insisted that the UK must leave the customs union after Brexit in order to strike trade deals around the world.
The prime minister is facing a series of parliamentary battles in the coming weeks over the UK’s future customs arrangements with the EU. After a massive defeat on the issue in the House of Lords, pro-European Tory MPs are set to voice their concerns over withdrawal from the customs union on Thursday.
But speaking on a local election campaign visit, Mrs May insisted that should would not change course. She said arrangements which are as “frictionless as possible” with the EU and the ability to strike trade deals around the world were both achievable under the proposals set out by the government.
On a visit to a firm in the West Mid- lands she said: “Coming out of the customs union means that we will be free to have those deals, deals that suit the UK.
“But I also recognise the importance to businesses like this of being able to have as frictionless a border as possible into the European Union.”
Downing Street said the government’s position had not changed since Mrs May delivered her Mansion House speech in March. Those plans included two options, either a “customs partnership” effectively collecting duties for Brussels for goods arriving in the UK but intended for EU markets or a “highly streamlined” arrangement making use of technology and regulatory co-operation. But Mrs May is set to face calls from leading Brexiteers Boris Johnson, David Davis and Liam Fox to abandon her preferred form of customs deal.
A showdown is expected to come at a meeting of the Cabinet Brexit committee scheduled for today when the trio will tell the PM that the “customs partnership” would be unworkable, the report said.
The prime minister’s official spokesman said: “We think both of the two options which we have put forward can provide solutions to the Irish border and t o having a smooth customs arrangement with the EU.”
Mrs May will be given an indication of the scale of the opposition she faces from pro-EU Tories over her customs union plan in a Commons debate tomorrow.
The Government has suffered three more heavy defeats in the Lords over flagship Brexit legislation.
In the main reverse, peers backed a cross-party move to retain key EU human rights provisions on exiting the union.
Voting was 316 to 245, majority 71, to carry over most of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights into domestic law post-Brexit.
The Government suffered a further defeat when peers voted by 285 to 235, majority 50, to remove the ability for ministers to specify in regulations cases where individuals may bring challenges against the validity of retained EU law.
And there was a third defeat for ministers, consequential to the previous reverses, retaining the right of legal action from any failure to comply with the general principles of EU law. Peers voted by 280 to 223, majority 57.