Cox drops ‘hard limit’ demands on backstop
Attorney General abandons Eurosceptics’ key conditions after EU resists changes
‘The problem is that the EU is taking a very absolutist approach … on the integrity of the single market’
THE Attorney General has abandoned attempts to secure a hard time-limit or unilateral exit mechanism from the Irish backstop, The Daily Telegraph has been told.
Ministers briefed on Geoffrey Cox’s approach said those aims, which represent the central demands of Eurosceptics, are considered too “blunt” and have been rejected by the EU.
Some Cabinet ministers are already resigned to Theresa May losing a second meaningful vote on her deal in the Commons amid concerns that changes to the backstop secured by Mr Cox will not be enough to win over Brexiteers.
Mr Cox is understood to be focusing on securing an enhanced “arbitration mechanism” that allows the UK or the EU to provide formal notice that the backstop should come to an end. The EU, however, is resisting demands for an “independent” arbitration panel, outside the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, to decide when the backstop should come to an end.
The approach appears to fall short of the demands of a “star chamber” of eight Eurosceptics, led by the veteran Conservative MP Sir Bill Cash, which will assess the outcome of Mr Cox’s talks in Brussels and determine whether Mrs May’s deal will have the backing of Brexiteers next week.
In a document detailing their demands, they have called for a “legally binding” exit mechanism that will offer a “clear and unconditional route out of the backstop if trade talks fail”.
Steve Baker, a senior Tory Eurosceptic MP, said that the enhanced arbitration mechanism being considered by Mr Cox also falls short of an amendment tabled by Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 committee. The amendment, passed last month after Mrs May’s deal was first voted down, requires the Irish backstop to be replaced with alternative arrangements.
Mr Baker told The Telegraph: “This seems to indicate a satirical approach to fulfilling the Brady amendment which the Government whipped for.
“The Brady amendment required that you replace the backstop with alternative arrangements. That’s light years away from tweaking arbitration mechanisms.”
Mr Cox and Stephen Barclay, the Brexit Secretary, will return to Brussels tomorrow for further talks. The Attorney General is seeking changes sufficient for him to alter his legal advice on the backstop, which stated that it could continue indefinitely.
The Telegraph understands that under Mr Cox’s plans, the UK or the EU will be able to provide formal notification that they wish to end the backstop if one side is considered to be acting in bad faith or if “alternative arrangements” are in place.
One minister said: “The problem is that the EU is taking a very absolutist approach. They are saying we can’t contract out the integrity of the single market to a third party.”
A diplomatic source said the EU was doing everything it could, including the use of “acrobatic language” to reassure the UK, but it did not amount to a unilateral exit mechanism or time limit.
Both EU and UK negotiator sources remain downbeat about the prospects for a deal that will satisfy Brexiteers.
The Irish government, which in practice must authorise any concessions on the backstop, remains adamant that any pledges or review mechanism “cannot cut across the thrust and import” of the Withdrawal Agreement.
CHLORINATED chicken from America is safe to eat, Liam Fox has said as he suggested it should not be a barrier to a post-brexit trade deal with the US.
Last week, Woody Johnson, the US ambassador, described the EU as a “museum of agriculture” and urged the UK to embrace US farming methods.
Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Mr Johnson said US practices such as chlorine-washing chicken and feeding growth hormones to cattle were “the future of farming” while the “traditionalist approach” of the EU belonged in the past.
Dr Fox, the International Trade Secretary, said on BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show that chlorinated chicken was “not about safety”.
He said: “You take the chlorinewashed chicken, a lot of our food is already chlorine-washed, the salads that we get. The question is not about safety, the question is about the implications for animal welfare further down the track.
“There is a world beyond Europe and there will be a time beyond Brexit.”
However, Dr Fox’s position appeared to contrast with that of Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary, who has repeatedly said that Britain would not lower its food standards after Brexit. Mr Johnson said that washing chicken with chlorine was “a public safety nobrainer” and that US beef fed with growth hormones was “completely safe to eat”.
He added: “It would be a genuine missed opportunity to buy into the idea that the EU’S traditionalist approach to agriculture is Britain’s only option for a quality and efficient agriculture sector moving forward.
“You now have the freedom to make your own choices about the way you farm and fish, the products you import, and the technology you utilise ... together we could shape the agricultural revolution of the future.”
The Telegraph has learnt that Britain will unilaterally agree to follow all EU food safety and animal health regulations for a period of at least nine months in the event of a no-deal Brexit in order to protect British farming.
The British decision to unilaterally align with the EU comes after Mr Gove warned last week that there was “no guarantee” that British farmers would be able to continue to export their products to the EU in a no-deal scenario.
The UK still has not been classified as a “third country” by EU regulators, an essential process for exporters to the EU which usually takes around three years after all health and safety audits are complete.