EU accused of bullying UK over ‘backstop’ plan and border issue

BRUSSELS has already rejected Theresa May’s customs union “backstop” option, it has emerged, as Brexiteers accused the EU of using the Irish border issue to “bully” Britain.

EU sources are adamant that the fallback position in the event of no customs deal being agreed must only apply to Northern Ireland and not, as Mrs May has said, to the rest of the UK.

They also suggested the Cabinet’s preferred option of a “maximum facilitation” plan for customs arrangements would not be ready for three to five years and could take decades. The Cabinet’s Brexit sub-committee agreed the “backstop” plan, meaning the UK temporarily sticking to EU tariffs, but only if new technology needed to prevent a hard border in Ireland was not ready by the end of the transition period in 2020.

But Brussels is digging in its heels, insisting the backstop will apply only to Northern Ireland because it believes that if the whole of the UK was allowed to stick to EU tariffs it would create back door access to the single market without Britain having to pay.

One EU source said: “The UK has agreed that if it can’t find a solution then Northern Ireland will remain aligned to customs union and single market rules and both sides have fully agreed to that.” Mrs May has said anything that only applies to Northern Ireland is unacceptable because it would create a border in the Irish Sea.

Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative leader, said: “The EU is now trying to put pressure on the British Government to stay in the customs union. The EU is trying to use the Ireland issue to bully the British. We have made a decision we are leaving the customs union, that we all agree there will be flexible border arrangements… then we will head toward that.

“If we do that now we can achieve our goal. But that requires political bravery by the Irish government and for the EU to stop messing around.”