Our EU ties should not become stifling

What a difference a week makes in politics. Last Monday, Theresa May looked in serious trouble after the intervention of the DUP scuppered her efforts to secure an agreement with the EU on the next stage of the Brexit negotiations. In the Commons yesterday, she was lauded by Tory MPS – Remainers and Leavers alike – for the breakthrough that eventually came on Friday. It will have been music to her ears to hear praise from both Ken Clarke and Sir Bill Cash.

For now, the party seems to have set its divisions aside. As Sir Edward Leigh said, Conservative minds have been concentrated by the prospect of a Labour government if they did not stop feuding. It was, however, an uncomfortable few hours for Jeremy Corbyn, whose equivocation on Brexit has left him with no coherent case to make.

While aspects of the deal remain unclear and “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed”, Mrs May reaffirmed that she was looking for a bespoke agreement, neither soft nor hard. To trade with the EU it will be necessary to align with the rules of the market into which we were trading. But Brexit was also an opportunity to diverge, she said, and forge new partnerships. How far this will be possible will be determined in Phase 2 of the talks. It is one thing for the Government to say what it wants; we have yet to find out what the EU wants, and we may find it unpalatable and overly restrictive.

Earlier this year, Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, suggested that Britain post-brexit would consider abandoning a European-style social model with European-style taxation and regulation, and “become something different”. However, he later changed tack and said the UK will not seek to compete for business by becoming a low-tax, lowregulation economy. The chancellor told French newspaper Le Monde that Britain’s post-brexit economy would remain “recognisably European”.

While our interests may continue to coincide, we need to be clear where we stand. For instance, Britain has joined Germany, France, Spain and Italy in urging the Americans to rethink protectionist tax proposals promoted by Donald Trump’s administration which they fear will have “a major distortive impact on international trade”. This may be true. Nonetheless, Brexit is an opportunity to break with the high-tax philosophy that holds sway in the EU and we should make sure that option is not closed off by the final deal.