May faces Cabinet split over EU customs deal
Divisions between senior ministers could put PM’S job at risk when Commons votes on trade proposals
THERESA MAY will face a Cabinet split over a customs deal with the EU when she meets senior ministers tomorrow ahead of a key Commons vote next month that could determine her future as leader.
Eurosceptic Cabinet ministers including David Davis, Liam Fox, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove are expected to warn the Prime Minister that she must abandon plans for a customs partnership amid fears it could pave the way for a significant climbdown over Brexit. However, Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, and other leading pro-european Cabinet ministers will argue that it is “premature” to abandon any of the Government’s proposals for a customs deal with the EU when negotiations with Brussels have stalled. “We shouldn’t cut off our nose to spite our face,” a Whitehall source said.
It came as Downing Street refused to rule out making a crunch vote on the customs union in Parliament next month an effective vote of confidence in the Prime Minister and her Government. Pro-european Tory MPS have put their names to an amendment that would force the Government to strike a divorce deal with the EU that enables the UK to stay in a customs union – something the Prime Minister has explicitly ruled out.
Mrs May would face serious questions about whether she should remain in post if she lost such a vote, which could leave Britain unable to strike free trade deals after leaving the EU.
Mr Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, yesterday declined to say whether he would quit if Parliament forced the Prime Minister to stay in the customs union. Ministers are expected to debate Britain’s options for a customs union at a meeting of the Cabinet’s Brexit sub-committee tomorrow. The Prime Minister set out two options last month for a deal with the EU. The first, a “cus- toms partnership”, would see Britain collect duties for Brussels for goods ar- riving in the UK but intended for EU markets.
Eurosceptics fear that this option is “unworkable” and will see Britain end up staying in the customs union, despite the Prime Minister’s pledge to leave it. They favour a second “highly streamlined” arrangement, which would use technology to minimise but not eliminate checks on imports.
Whitehall sources have previously described the customs partnership option as “intellectually perfect”. Downing Street yesterday insisted that both options are being pursued. The Prime Minister yesterday said that the UK must leave the customs union after Brexit in order to strike trade deals around the world. On a visit to the West Midlands she told the BBC: “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.”
On Thursday pro-european Tory MPS will back a non-binding amendment requiring Britain to make staying in the customs union an “objective” of negotiations.
However, ministers believe that the vote will be “meaningless” and the Government is not whipping MPS to attend the debate or vote against it.
It comes after the Government lost two votes on the customs union in the Lords last week. Last night they lost two further votes after peers backed a move to contain the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights in domestic law after Brexit and for another vote over challenges to the validity of EU law.
‘Coming out of the customs union means that we will be free to have those deals, deals that suit the UK’