Tusk says EU is ready to offer a Canada-plus Brexit deal

THE European Union is ready to offer Britain a form of “Canada-plus” Brexit trade deal, Donald Tusk said yesterday, in a move described by Boris Johnson as a “superb way forward”.

Mr Tusk, the European Council president, also demanded that Theresa May’s Government “get down to business” and solve the Irish border issue to seal a Brexit deal.

The comments put pressure on the Prime Minister to change strategy and open talks on a Canada-plus deal – which would allow the UK greater freedom to sign trade deals after Brexit – ahead of a crucial meeting of EU leaders in 10 days.

Eurosceptic Conservative MPS, including the former foreign secretary, back a Canada-plus deal rather than the closer ties agreed by Mrs May’s Cabinet at her Chequers country home.

Speaking after meeting Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister, in Brussels, Mr Tusk said: “From the very beginning, the EU offer has been a Canada+++ deal – much further-reaching on trade, internal security and foreign policy cooperation. This is a true measure of respect. And this offer remains in place.”

Number 10 sources pointed out that Mr Tusk’s Canada-plus offer only related to mainland Britain, with Northern Ireland remaining in the customs union because of the need to maintain a soft border with Ireland after Brexit.

The EU insists it would require a customs and regulatory border in the Irish Sea in order to maintain an “invisible” border in Northern Ireland.

But Mr Tusk’s remarks were welcomed by Mr Johnson and the leading Eurosceptic Conservative MPS.

Mr Johnson said: “Tusk’s Canada +++ offer shows there is a superb way forward that can solve the Irish border problem and deliver a free trade-based partnership that works well for both sides of the channel. But the first step to achieving a mutually beneficial Supercanada deal is the removal of the Irish backstop so there is no threat to the Union whatsoever.”

Mr Johnson’s “Supercanada” deal would seek to create the biggest-ever trade deal with the EU, using customs facilitation technologies to reduce friction at the EU border, while retaining an independent trade policy. Mr Johnson and fellow Brexiteers continue to

assert that technology can be used to create an invisible border in Ireland, but the EU has emphatically and repeatedly ruled this out.

Jacob Rees-mogg, the chairman of the European Research Group of Tory MPS, said: “This is excellent news. It means that the challenge for the Government is solely solving the Irish border question – which is a political issue.

“This would unite the Conservative party, be a good deal for the country, deliver on Brexit and it is really difficult to see why the Government is not embracing this.”

David Davis, the former Brexit secretary who quit over Chequers deal, said: “This shows clearly that No 10’s claim that there is no alternative to Chequers is just wrong. We could easily switch strategies to Canada +++ and deliver an outcome that is good for the UK, acceptable to Parliament and negotiable with Brussels.”

Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, urged Mrs May to “bite his hand off ” and start talks now on a Canada-plus deal, while Steve Baker, a former Brexit minister, said he was “deeply encouraged” by Mr Tusk’s comments and said he hoped to “persuade all parties to look at pragmatic arrangements on the Irish border”.

Mrs May was left visibly furious after the humiliating Salzburg summit last month when Mr Tusk warned that huge swathes of Chequers simply “will not work”. But Mr Tusk said he was simply “telling the truth” when he mocked Mrs May over trying to cherrypick a deal at the EU leaders’ summit Salzburg two weeks ago.

He said: “Telling the truth, even if difficult and unpleasant, is the best way of showing respect for partners. That’s how it was in Salzburg, and that’s also how we will work in the coming days.”

Mrs May is expected to put forward an alternative plan in coming days under which the UK would temporarily remain in an open-ended customs arrangement with the EU, rather than just Northern Ireland.

But that would require Brussels to change its stance that only Northern Ireland could stay part of EU customs territory for the backstop.

Separately a leading expert said Mrs May would have to find an extra £20 billion a year to fund her promise to end austerity. Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said: “I don’t know what she means by the end of austerity, but it won’t look like it.”

He added: “At the very minimum, if cuts stop from now on, that is going to require the Government to find at least an extra £20billion or so by the end of this Parliament”.