Brexit row over claim referendum on final deal with EU is ‘possible’
PM’s move to prevent hard border after Brexit
BORIS JOHNSON’S Foreign Office deputy Sir Alan Duncan has provoked a new Brexit row after suggesting that a second referendum could be held on the final deal with the European Union.
According to news agency Bloomberg, Sir Alan said in a speech in Berlin: “It would, I suppose, just be possible to ask the people in a referendum if they liked the exit deal or not.
“It would not in reality offer people the option of reversing the original decision to leave the EU.”
His comments yesterday came after Cabinet Ministers agreed any “backstop” arrangement to prevent the return of a hard border between Northern Ireland and the republic after Brexit should not continue for more than a year after the end of the transition period.
Separately, a new Lords report published today said the UK needs to compromise in Brexit negotiations and focus on forging the best possible relationship with the EU rather than sticking to red lines. Peers called on both sides to “change their mindsets”.
A Foreign Office spokesman said Sir Alan had made clear in his Berlin speech that the idea of a second referendum on EU withdrawal was “a myth”.
The spokesman said: “As the Minister said several times in today’s speech in Berlin, we are leaving the EU and there will be no second referendum.”
MINISTERS HAVE agreed any “backstop” arrangement to prevent the return of a hard border between Northern Ireland and the republic after Brexit should not continue for more than a year after the end of the transition period.
A Government technical note published yesterday after 24 hours of speculation over its contents said the UK expected permanent customs arrangements to be in place by the end of December 2021 at the latest.
The move came after Brexit Secretary David Davis was reported to be considering resigning unless there was a clear time limit on the temporary customs arrangements which would be adopted if there is no final Brexit deal.
The note said: “The UK is clear that the temporary customs arrangement, should it be needed, should be time-limited, and that it will be only in place until the future customs arrangement can be introduced. The UK is clear that the future customs arrangement needs to deliver on the commitments made in relation to Northern Ireland.
“The UK expects the future arrangement to be in place by the end of December 2021 at the latest. There are a range of options for how a time limit could be delivered, which the UK will propose and discuss with the EU.”
Downing Street said earlier that Mrs May had held “constructive” talks with Mr Davis and expected him to remain in his post.
The Prime Minister also held separate face-to-face discussions in her parliamentary office with the two other leading Brexiteers, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and International Trade Secretary Liam Fox. None of the three Ministers threatened to resign during the discussions, a spokeswoman for the Prime Minister said.
A source close to Mr Davis said: “Obviously, there’s been a back and forth on this paper, as there always is whenever the Government publishes anything.
“The backstop paper has been amended and now expresses, in much more detail, the timelimited nature of our proposal – something the Prime Minister and David Davis have always been committed to.”
Under the current timetable Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29 2019 followed by a transition period running to the end of 2020. The paper proposes that if there is no final agreement, there should be a temporary customs arrangement lasting up to 12 months. During that period there would be no “tariffs, quotas, rules of origin (or) customs processes” applied to UK-EU trade.
At the same time the UK would be able to strike free-trade agreements with other countries and to implement those elements which did not affect the functioning of the backstop.
The paper was issued after Mr Davis was believed to have insisted the UK should be able to unilaterally withdraw from any border agreement to maintain leverage with Brussels in negotiations. Pressed on whether he could remain in post if the backstop deal did not meet his full approval, Mr Davis said on Wednesday: “That’s a question, I think, for the Prime Minister, to be honest.”
Mr Davis made it clear the document would be “decisive” as he said he planned to meet chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier again for Brexit talks next week.
The EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier welcomed the paper. He said they would be examining the proposals in the light of three questions: “Is it a workable solution to avoid a hard border? Does it respect the integrity of the single market/customs union? Is it an all-weather backstop?”
Ireland’s deputy premier Simon Coveney warned that unless there was a legally binding assurance that a hard border would be avoided “in all circumstances”, there could be no progress on other elements of the Brexit talks.
THE SIGHT of David Davis scuttling in and out of 10 Downing Street following the latest Brexit crisis had uncanny parallels with the aftermath of last year’s election when he convinced Theresa May not to resign.
Yet, while it’s testament to the resilience of the Prime Minister that she’s survived the past year since losing her Commons majority on this day 12 months ago, it’s hardly a ringing vote of confidence in her abilities.
Mrs May effectively remains in place because she’s still the ‘least worst’ option. The Tory party does not appear to have a feasible alternative leader and only the possibility of a hardleft socialist government headed by Jeremy Corbyn has prevented its total implosion.
However, while there have been occasions when Mrs May has risen to the challenge and showed the leadership expected of her, she increasingly finds herself at the mercy of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party – the DUP’s opposition to the relaxation of abortion laws will test this Parliamentary alliance to the limit – and her own party’s warring factions over Brexit.
Even though Mr Davis, the Haltemprice and Howden MP, remains as Brexit Secretary for now after a tentative form of words was agreed, the very fact that the Government has not published its White Paper on Britain’s planned exit from the EU next March is indicative of the Cabinet civil war now being waged ahead of a crucial set of Commons votes next week on customs arrangements.
As Britain’s chief negotiator, he believes he was kept in the dark by Mrs May’s advocacy of a socalled ‘backstop’ to prevent a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and how this may have emboldened those EU chiefs who are intent on thwarting the UK Government at every turn.
Coming almost 10 years to the day after Mr Davis resigned as Shadow Home Secretary following a clash with David Cameron, the then-Opposition leader, over civil liberties, it can only be assumed Mrs May blinked first in the latest Downing Street showdown, and agreed that it should be time-limited, before she headed off to the G7 summit in Canada.
And, just like the election aftermath, it begs the question “Who is running Britain?” as the Government becomes paralysed by Brexit and at the mercy of the DUP, and others, if it wants to initiate domestic policy reforms.
Like the Ministers themselves, this country has gorged itself on political fudge for too long. And while Shipley MP Philip Davies attracted mirth when he asked yesterday for a debate on how out of touch the House of Commons is with “public opinion”, his sentiment struck a chord.
Not only does this region want social mobility reforms accelerated and the NHS put on a sustainable financial footing amid new claims that 600 GP surgeries across England are threatened with closure, but commuters here are incandescent with the Government’s lackadaisical response to the Northern Rail crisis.
Here was an opportunity for Mrs May – and her top team – to show that they were on the side of the Northern Powerhouse by responding favourably to the unprecedented joint call by The Yorkshire Post, and newspapers across the region, to get a grip of the region’s railways.
The fact that the PM and her advisers have not done so is, frankly, symptomatic of the inaction and inertia of the past 12 months which has seen Theresa May survive – and achieve little else – at a pivotal moment when the country needed a Prime Minister who can lead rather than be led.