Brexit drama enters a new chapter
THERESA May’s battle for a Brexit deal will enter a new chapter today when cabinet ministers debate a draft text agreed by negotiating teams in Brussels.
It is far from clear whether the PM can command the support of a majority of MPs in the Commons – and the EU has cautioned that a withdrawal agreement is not yet done and dusted.
Pontypridd MP Owen Smith, a leading Labour campaigner for a second referendum, said: “It’s not enough for Theresa May to secure support for her deal from cabinet, or even from Parliament. This deal will dictate the course for our country for generations to come and it must be put to the people for their approval or rejection.”
Meanwhile, a report from MPs stoked fears about delays at ports for animal exports if there is no deal, warning of a shortage of vets.
THE United Kingdom and European Union have at last agreed on a draft Brexit deal. Prime Minister Theresa May was last night meeting members of her Cabinet one at a time to explain the proposals.
And at 2pm today she is due to chair a meeting of her Cabinet where she will ask them formally to support the proposed agreement.
The deal is designed to pave the way for Brexit to take place as planned on March 29, 2019, although there are likely to be issues still to be resolved even after that.
But it remains to be seen whether or not Mrs May will have the support of every Cabinet colleague once they see what’s proposed.
A Downing Street official said: “Cabinet will meet at 2pm tomorrow to consider the draft agreement the negotiating teams have reached in Brussels, and to decide on next steps. Cabinet ministers have been invited to read documentation ahead of that meeting.”
Mrs May also needs to win the support of Parliament before any deal becomes official.
And that may be extremely difficult as people likely to oppose the Brexit deal include some pro-Brexit Tory MPs, some pro-Remain Tory MPs, the DUP, Labour, Liberal Democrats and the SNP.
Last night it became clear the Prime Minister would face a Brexiteer backlash as her Cabinet began consideration of a deal with Brussels.
Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson urged his ex-Cabinet colleagues to “chuck it out”, warning that the proposals made a “nonsense of Brexit”.
And Jacob Rees-Mogg, chairman of the influential European Research Group of dozens of Tory MPs, said: “It is a failure of the Government’s negotiating position, it is a failure to deliver on Brexit and it is potentially dividing up the United Kingdom.”
A series of ministers were seen entering and leaving Downing Street following the Number 10 announcement.
Chief Whip Julian Smith told reporters: “I am confident that we will get this through Parliament and that we can deliver on what the Prime Minister committed to on delivering Brexit.”
Scottish Secretary David Mundell said ministers would have to “reflect on the detail”.
“That’s what the Government has been working for all this time, to get a deal, and negotiators have worked incredibly hard to get us to this point but we have to reflect on the detail and consider at Cabinet,” he said.
The special meeting today could potentially be a flashpoint for tensions between Brexiteers and Remainers around the Cabinet table, with speculation that Leave-supporting ministers including Penny Mordaunt, Esther McVey and Liam Fox could be prepared to walk out if a deal ties the UK too closely to Brussels.
The deal follows intense negotiation in Brussels, with measures to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland the main stumbling block.
Irish broadcaster RTE reported that a “stable” text had been agreed on the thorny issue of the Northern Irish border.
The broadcaster said the deal involved one overall “backstop” in the form of a UK-wide customs
arrangement – as sought by Mrs May – but with deeper provisions for Northern Ireland on customs and regulations.
A review mechanism is understood to be part of the text, but it is unclear whether that would meet the demands of Tory Brexiteers – including some in the Cabinet – who want the UK to be able to unilaterally walk away from the deal to prevent it from becoming a permanent settlement.
A Number 10 spokesman said: “Cabinet will meet at 2pm tomorrow to consider the draft agreement the negotiating teams have reached in Brussels and to decide on next steps.
“Cabinet ministers have been invited to read documentation ahead of that meeting.”
Brexiteers lined up to condemn the deal before its details had even been officially confirmed.
Mr Johnson told the BBC: “For the first time in a thousand years, this place, this Parliament, will not have a say over the laws that govern this country.”
Mr Rees-Mogg told the broadcaster: “White flags have gone up all over Whitehall. It is a betrayal of the Union.”
Ex-Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith suggested Mrs May’s administration could collapse over the deal.
He warned that if reports of the deal’s contents were true, the government was “breaking their own agreed position and will be bringing back something that is untenable”.
He added that “if the Cabinet agrees it, the party certainly won’t”.
Asked if the government’s days were numbered, he said: “If this is the case almost certainly, yes.”
Political leaders in Northern Ireland gave a cautious welcome to a deal being agreed in the Brexit negotiations.
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood welcomed reports that the UK and EU had agreed a text on the border in Ireland, but he said any agreement must include a backstop.
Mr Eastwood said: “The SDLP are glad to hear that an agreement might have been reached and we look forward to reading the text of that agreement in detail.
“If the agreement involves a backstop that protects Ireland from a hard border then we would hope it will gain support in Westminster.”
Ulster Unionist leader Robin Swann said there must not be any “ambiguity” about Northern Ireland’s place in a post-Brexit UK.
Mr Swann said the next 24 to 48 hours in the negotiations would set “the direction of travel for Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom for decades to come”.
“The bottom line for the Prime Minister, the Conservative Government and their partners in the DUP must be the achievement of a sensible deal which respects the result of the referendum and maintains the integrity of the United Kingdom,” he said.
DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds said that the deal as reported would leave Northern Ireland “subject to the rules and laws set in Brussels with no democratic input or any say”.
He added: “We object to that on constitutional grounds that our laws would be made in Brussels, not in Westminster or Belfast. That is the fundamental red line.”
A spokesman for chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier said the latest in the negotiations had been set out earlier by commission vicepresident Frans Timmermans, who said that while the talks were making progress “we are not there yet”.
The European Commission would “take stock” on Wednesday, he added.
A spokesman for Ireland’s deputy premier, Simon Coveney, said that negotiations were at a “sensitive” juncture.
“We are not commenting on media speculation around the withdrawal agreement,” the spokesman said.
“Michel Barnier and the task force are charged with negotiating with the UK and we have been in constant communication with them throughout.”