Time is running out

Tensions in the Cabinet over the Government’s preferred policy on customs arrangements after Brexit are reaching a critical point. At the weekend Greg Clark, the Business Secretary, mounted a defence of the option preferred by the Prime Minister but which her colleagues declined to support last week. This involves some sort of customs “partnership” with the EU whereby the UK collects Europe’s trade tariffs. Mr Clark said the proposal was “still on the table” only for Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, to call the idea “crazy”.

Rarely have Cabinet disagreements been so publicly aired. Yet when the softly-spoken Mr Clark made his pitch on The Andrew Marr Show, he was praised by Remainers as the voice of sweet reason whereas Mr Johnson’s riposte was denounced as a breach of Cabinet protocol. It should have been apparent by now that when one side in this stand-off has its say the other reserves the right to fire back. It is Mrs May’s misfortune, partly self-inflicted, to be stuck in the middle.

The fact remains, however, that this needs to be resolved. We believe the UK needs to be able to trade freely after Brexit and not be hamstrung by any arrangement that makes this impossible. That is also Mrs May’s stated ambition. If she is able to construct something that fulfils that pledge and delivers frictionless trade underpinned by a light-touch regulatory framework agreeable to the EU, then she may yet satisfy both sides in her party. But time is running out if this is to be sorted out ahead of next month’s Brussels summit, as planned.

If the factions in the Conservative Party are proposing to bring matters to a head, what is the alternative strategy?