MPs trying to stop Brexit with partisan report, says Rees-Mogg
Committee issues advice saying exit from EU could be delayed, keeping Britain in single market
THE Commons committee scrutinising Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union is engulfed in a row over a new report that a leading Conservative member claimed was intended to “negate the referendum result” and damage the Government’s negotiating position amid crucial talks in Brussels.
The report, published today by the Commons Brexit committee, recommends postponing Britain’s exit from the EU if “substantial aspects” of an agreement have not been ratified by October, as well as giving Parliament the power to extend the implementation period of a trade deal.
The proposals were opposed by seven, mainly Leave-supporting, Conservative members of the committee but were passed with the support of three Tories who backed the Remain campaign during the referendum. The document also states that the commit- tee “cannot see how” the UK can avoid a hard border with Ireland if it leaves the customs union and single market, casting doubt on the Government’s insistence it can do so through “imaginative and creative solutions”.
Ministers warn that remaining in the single market and customs union would leave Britain tied to EU rules and unable to strike trade deals with non-EU countries.
Hilary Benn, the committee’s Labour chairman, said: “We know of no international border, other than the internal borders of the EU, that operates without checks and physical infrastructure. This is deeply concerning.”
The committee’s intervention comes as David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, prepares to travel to Brussels tonight to conclude a transition deal with Michel Barnier, the European Commission’s chief negotiator, as the two sides attempt to forge a political declaration that can be signed off when the European Council meets on Thursday.
Last night Jacob Rees-Mogg, a Conservative Brexiteer on the committee, told The Sunday Telegraph: “The report is timed to make the Government’s negotiating position more difficult. This is the classic strategy of those who backed Remain, to try to overturn the referendum result by sleight of hand.”
He added that the report “would keep us in the customs union and the single market”, which would mean “not leaving the EU”.
He said: “Those of us who respect the instructions that the people gave us in the referendum could not support so partisan a text.”
Last week Mr Davis said he “could live with” a 21-month transition period, after Theresa May originally said Britain was seeking a period of “around two years”.
But the report states: “If a 21-month transition implementation period is insufficient time to conclude and ratify the treaties… the only prudent action would be for the Government to seek a limited prolongation to avoid unnecessary disruption.” In such a period the country would be “subject to new EU laws over which it had not had voting rights”.
John Whittingdale, the committee’s vice chairman, who was a prominent Leave campaigner, said: “For a number of us the chairman’s report was far too negative and we do not believe that its conclusions are borne out by the evidence we heard.”
‘Those of us who respect instructions that the people gave us in the referendum could not support so partisan a text’