Lidington tells Scots backstop will be ‘kept in filing cabinet’

THERESA MAY’S de facto deputy has issued a direct appeal to wavering Scottish Tory MPS to support the Brexit deal by arguing special arrangements for Northern Ireland were only an “insurance policy.”

David Lidington said there was a “real determination on all sides” to ensure the backstop plans to keep the province more closely aligned to the EU were kept “in the filing cabinet” rather than used.

Dismissing SNP claims Scotland should get the same deal, he pointed out Northern Ireland has the UK’S only land border with the EU and highlighted its recent history of bloodshed.

His appeal came after The Daily Telegraph disclosed a series of Scottish Tory MPS are demanding further assurances the deal does not undermine the Union before they offer their backing. They have warned that the backstop arrangements, which will be implemented if the Irish border issue cannot be resolved, risk damaging the integrity of the Union and playing into the SNP’S hands. The Cabinet Office minister was in Edinburgh to discuss the deal, which was unveiled on Wednesday, with business leaders.

But David Mundell was not present after he faced calls for his resignation including one from Ross Thomson, a Scottish Tory MP.

The Scottish Secretary and Ruth Davidson wrote a joint letter to the Prime Minister last month warning they would quit if the deal undermined the UK’S integrity. They and most of the other 12 Scottish Tory MPS were expected to spend the weekend assessing in more detail the backstop arrangements before coming to a final view.

Asked what he would say to win over the Scottish Tories, Mr Lidington pointed out there are already regulatory differences in Northern Ireland in the livestock and electricity markets and argued the backstop’s additional checks would be minor. He said: “The history of Northern Ireland, the fact there is still a fragile peace-building process after decades of bitter and bloodthirsty conflict, means that there is a special circumstance that applies in Northern Ireland.”

Mr Lidington said the land border with an EU member state has economic, political and “talismanic significance that doesn’t apply anywhere else”. “But the key thing is to ensure that it never has to be used or if it were ever activated it was for a very short period by going to an overall UK-EU framework,” he said.

He said the remaining 27 EU member states did not want the backstop either as it would give part of the UK access to their single market without making budgetary contributions or allowing freedom of movement.

“It has always been conceived as an insurance policy only and I think there’s a real determination on all sides to make sure it remains just that, in the filing cabinet, and we never actually use it.”

But John Lamont, the Scottish Tories’ unofficial chief whip at Westminster, became the latest Tory MP to confirm he had yet to be won over.