Has PM secured breakthrough to seal a Brexit deal?

THERESA MAY is said to have made a breakthrough on Brexit talks that could see her put forward a deal to her Cabinet as early as Tuesday.

The Prime Minister was reported last night to have secured private concessions from Brussels that would keep the whole of the UK in a customs union with the EU.

Her plan would avoid the need for a hard border in Northern Ireland, which has long been the main sticking point in negotiations.

However, even if agreed to by Europe’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier, it may not get through the House of Commons, as it would anger hard Brexit-supporting MPs.

They believe it would prevent Britain securing new free trade deals with other countries, and would break the Conservatives’ manifesto promise to leave the customs union.

Last night prominent Brexiteer MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, chairman of the European Research Group, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘It would be a major breach of faith.

‘I am assuming the Government will stick to its manifesto commitment to leaving the customs union when we leave the EU.’

Tory backbencher Mark Pritchard wrote on Twitter that the proposed deal would amount to ‘not delivering Brexit’ and warned: ‘Severe punishment at General Election if this goes ahead. Appears any old deal now better than no deal.’

It was claimed that the EU had last week agreed a major concession to unlock a Brexit deal, by accepting that checks on goods could take place in factories and shops rather than at the border. An all-UK customs deal could be written into the withdrawal agreement, avoiding the need for a ‘backstop’ for Northern Ireland.

And it will include an ‘exit clause’ to avoid suspicion that Britain will forever be tied to EU rules, allowing the Government to forge a future free trade deal like that enjoyed by Canada.

The Prime Minister is said to be preparing to sell the plan to Brexiteers in the Cabinet by insisting the customs arrangement will not be permanent, and that the alternative is a potentially disastrous ‘no-deal’ exit from the bloc in March.

EU law expert Professor Steve Peers told this newspaper: ‘I think there became an increased chance of a deal once the EU apparently agreed to a UK-wide customs union with the EU in the withdrawal agreement.’

He said that an all-UK customs union would not breach the EU’s red lines.

But he added that there may still be some aspects surrounding Northern Ireland that may be opposed by the Democratic Unionist Party, whose votes in the Commons are vital to Mrs May, as well as angering Brexiteers.

Former Brexit Secretary David Davis told a Sunday newspaper that the Prime Minister must publish legal advice on any deal so that Ministers and MPs understand its implications before they are asked to vote on it, in order to avoid the ‘mess’ that Tony Blair’s government got into over the legality of the Iraq war.

Last night Downing Street sought to play down expectation that a customs union deal was close to being agreed.

A spokesman insisted: ‘Nothing has been agreed.’