May urged to stick with ‘clean’ Brexit
Brussels is told to ‘get serious’ after Juncker’s comments on ‘stability and accountability’ of Davis
MORE than 40 Eurosceptic Tory MPS have warned Theresa May that she must end payments to Brussels after Brexit and resist attempts to keep the UK in the EU by “stealth” during a transition period.
A letter, organised by Chance Britain, the Brexit-supporting lobby group, says that it would be a “historic mistake” to stay in the Single Market in March 2019 and states that the UK must leave the Customs Union so it is free to negotiate and sign trade deals.
It will be seen as part of a move to put pressure on the Prime Minister to resist calls by Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, and other ministers to try to water down her plans for a “clean” Brexit.
The letter was circulated by Suella Fernandes, a Tory MP and leader of a Eurosceptic group of MPS, who also serves as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Treasury ministers. Last night there were questions about whether the letter represents a breach of “collective responsibility” because she is a member of the Government.
The intervention prompted a furious response from pro-european Tories, who said that the letter was trying to “tie the Government’s hands” during a transitional period.
DAVID DAVIS’S relationship with Brussels reached a new low yesterday when EU negotiators questioned whether he was he was sufficiently “stable, accountable and available” during Brexit talks.
Jean-claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, said Mr Davis’s “apparent lack of involvement” risked “jeopardising the success of the negotiations”.
Supporters of Mr Davis hit back at the “bar room insults” and suggested that Mr Juncker was more interested in a “public slagging match” than reaching a pragmatic solution on Brexit.
It came as senior EU figures suggested trade talks cannot now begin until at least December, rather than October, as was previously suggested.
A debate over the EU (Withdrawal) Bill got under way in Parliament yesterday but it was overshadowed by the comments made by Mr Juncker and Michel Barnier, the EU’S chief Brexit negotiator, in a briefing to all 28 EU commissioners.
Minutes of the meeting on July 12, published for the first time, disclosed that Mr Barnier “expressed his concern about the question of the stability and accountability of the UK negotiator and his apparent lack of involvement, which risked jeopardising the success of the negotiations”.
Mr Davis did not respond to the comments, which the Brexit department said were “out of date”.
But Charlie Elphicke, the Tory MP, said: “It’s clear the British Government seizing the initiative in the negotiations is causing frustration in Brussels.
“These bar room insults show how weak and defensive they have become. The clock is ticking – there are less than 600 days to go. They need to get serious about the negotiations.”
At a press conference in Brussels, Mr Barnier insisted he had a “cordial” and “professional” relationship with Mr Davis. However, he was combative in his comments about the future of the border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland as he presented several new Brexit position papers.
He heaped pressure on Britain to ensure Brexit did not jeopardise the Good Friday Agreement, Common Travel Area and “invisible border” between the Republic and Northern Ireland.
Mr Barnier said British hopes of a bespoke customs deal on the Irish border that could be replicated for all UK-EU trade were doomed to failure. “The UK position paper worries me.” he said. “The UK wants to use Ireland as a kind of test case for a future UK-EU customs relationship. This will not happen.”
The latest round of negotiations broke up last week with a stalemate over the size of any Brexit “divorce bill” Britain must pay the EU and progress still needed on citizens’ rights and the Irish border issue. The EU has said it will only begin trade talks when it is satisfied that “sufficient progress” has been made – a decision that was going to be addressed in October.
The European Parliament president Antonio Tajani said he would advise the European Council to delay its assessment until December, while former Council president Herman van Rompuy said the chances of moving on to the second phase in October were “in the neighbourhood of zero”.