May outnumbered on Brexit customs deal
THERESA MAY last night conceded that her plans for a customs partnership with the EU were “dead” after senior Cabinet ministers turned on her during a crunch Brexit meeting.
Sajid Javid, the new Home Secretary and Remain voter, switched sides to join Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and other Brexiteers in arguing that the Prime Minister’s preferred option for a customs deal should be “killed off ”.
Mrs May was said to have been “shocked” at the strength of opposition to her idea during a meeting of the Cabinet’s Brexit sub-committee.
Mr Javid’s intervention – on just his third day in the job – proved crucial in swinging the argument, as his predecessor, Amber Rudd, agreed with Mrs May, which would have given the Prime Minister a 6-5 majority. Instead, Mr Javid joined Mr Johnson, Mr Gove, Gavin Williamson, Liam Fox and David Davis in telling her they could not accept a customs partnership.
Downing Street was accused of trying to “rig” the outcome of the meeting by initially claiming that Julian Smith, the Chief Whip, who sits around the table at the meetings, was a 12th member of the committee, meaning there was no majority for either side.
But No 10 later conceded that Mr Smith was not a voting member, meaning those in favour of a customs partnership were in a minority.
Brexiteers, who claimed a significant victory last night, had argued that a partnership, in which Britain would collect tariffs on behalf of the EU and companies would have to claim back rebates, would be too close to a customs union and would prevent free trade deals being struck.
It came after an influential group of 60 Tory MPS threatened to withdraw their support for the government unless the idea was dropped.
The committee met to discuss whether Britain should negotiate with the EU for a customs partnership or a second “maximum facilitation” option relying on new technology to track the
movement of goods. The meeting broke up without agreement, but Government sources said Mrs May had conceded that her customs partnership idea was “a goner”.
Ministers also agreed the second option, known as “max fac” for short, also had serious flaws and officials have now been ordered to come up with revised plans which could be discussed by the committee as early as next week.
A Government source said: “The customs partnership idea in its current form is no longer on the table… It’s impossible to say right now what the new proposal will look like, or whether more than one idea will be put to the committee when it next meets… in its current form the customs partnership idea is dead. There cannot be one now.”
Mrs May had gone into the meeting hoping she could command a majority for her preferred option if the commit- tee split along Remain/leave lines, but Remainers Mr Javid and Mr Williamson came out strongly in favour of max fac, with Mr Williamson expressing “grave concerns” about a customs partnership and Mr Javid saying it was “untested” and would prevent Britain signing free trade agreements with non-eu countries. It meant that Mrs May could only command the support of Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, Karen Bradley, the Northern Ireland Secretary, Greg Clarke, the Business Secretary, and David Lidington, the Cabinet Office Minister.
One source said: “The Prime Minister was clearly shocked to find that the room was against her.”
No formal vote was held and Government sources denied claims Mrs May refused to allow a show of hands.
The Government also suffered its 10th defeat on Brexit in the Lords as peers passed an amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill that is designed to prevent a hard border in Ireland.
♦ Britain is plotting to disrupt the EU’S Galileo space project by blocking the transfer of encryption technology if it is locked out of it after Brexit, the FT reported last night. It is claimed that officials are looking at ways to persuade tech firm CGI to reject an EU contract offer to hand over its cryptography expertise to a French defence firm.