May calls for calm as Brexit talks hit deadlock
PM’s Cabinet showdown ahead of crunch summit
PRIME MINISTER Theresa May has insisted that a Brexit deal is still “achievable” despite a deadlock in negotiations as she prepared to face her Cabinet today with an agreement over the Irish border still out of reach.
Mrs May called for “cool, calm heads to prevail” after talks at the weekend failed to bridge differences between the UK and EU over the future status of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.
And hours before she faced down Brexit-supporting members of the Cabinet this morning, she warned of the danger that failure to reach agreement over the border could result in the UK leaving the EU without a deal in March next year.
The Prime Minister was addressing the Commons just two days before she travels to Brussels for a summit at which it had initially been hoped to finalise the UK’s withdrawal agreement as well as a political declaration on future trade and security relations.
With opposition mounting on all sides the task of getting her deal approved by MPs appears ever more difficult, with one former Minister telling The Yorkshire Post that “too many MPs are unhappy for too many reasons”.
Following the failure to achieve a breakthrough when Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab met EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier on Sunday, the European Commission confirmed that no further negotiations will be held ahead of tomorrow’s summit.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the prospect of agreement “looks a bit more difficult again”, adding: “If it doesn’t work out this week, we must continue negotiating, that is clear – but time is pressing.”
Berlin wants the UK’s withdrawal next March to be orderly “but not at any price”, Mrs Merkel told a conference of German exporters.
Talks at the weekend foundered over the EU’s demand for a “backstop to the backstop” designed to ensure that the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic remains open under any circumstances.
Mrs May has offered to keep the whole of the UK temporarily in a customs union with the EU until a broader trade deal is in place avoiding the need for customs and regulatory checks at the Irish border, with the expectation that this will not be later than the end of 2021.
But Mr Barnier insisted that a carve-out, keeping Northern Ireland alone, in the EU’s customs area should remain available in case the UK-wide arrangement lapses before the trade deal is finalised.
Mrs May told MPs that this was not acceptable as it risked undermining the integrity of the UK.
The PM warned that the Irish issue must not be allowed to “derail” progress towards a deal which she said was in the interests of both the UK and EU.
She told MPs she would take steps to ensure that “we cannot be kept in this backstop arrangement indefinitely”.
JEREMY CORBYN was last night branded a “groundhog” and accused of a “shameless U-turn” by senior Tory MPs after he urged Theresa May to stand up to the “reckless voices” on her benches over Brexit.
The Labour leader insisted the UK and EU should negotiate a “permanent customs union” to protect jobs and manufacturing, which led him to be targeted by Iain Duncan Smith and Boris Johnson in the Commons.
He also told the Prime Minister to “put the country before her party” and to seek a Brexit deal which can be supported by Parliament and the public.
Mr Corbyn revealed at his party’s conference last month that Labour would back Mrs May’s Brexit deal if it keeps Britain in a customs union with the EU, though this would force Mrs May to abandon one of her key Brexit ‘red lines’.
Former Foreign Secretary Mr Johnson told the Commons: “In deciding to remain in the customs union, (Mr Corbyn) is guilty of a shameless U-turn and a betrayal of millions of people who voted Leave.”
Mr Johnson was heckled by Opposition MPs before asking Mrs May: “Will you confirm that the very latest deadline by which this country will take back control of our tariff schedules in Geneva and vary those tariffs independently of Brussels in order to do free trade deals will be December 2021? If that isn’t the deadline, could she say when it is.”
Mrs May replied: “You’re absolutely right in pointing out the Uturn of (Mr Corbyn)... they cannot hold the position both they want to do trade deals around the rest of the world and also that they want to be part of a customs union.”
The PM said she hoped the temporary nature of the Irish border “backstop” can be reflected properly, adding: “I continue to believe what we should all be doing is working to ensure the backstop never comes into place and that actually it’s not December 2021 we’re talking about but January 1 2021.”
Tory former cabinet minister Mr Duncan Smith earlier told Mrs May: “Can I urge her not to listen to the groundhog opposite, who doesn’t have any interesting questions, but to rely on one specific question.
“I agree that we are not and will not be in the customs union – that’s a pledge she made and which the British people voted for, to be out of the customs union. When she made her decision on that, how long does she think this temporary arrangement might last and most importantly, who would make the final decision as to when it ends?”
Mrs May reiterated her expectation the implementation period would end by December 2021, adding: “I don’t want to see the backstop having to be used at all.”
Opening the reply to the PM’s statement on Brexit, and amid heated scenes, Mr Corbyn had said: “For too long this country has been held hostage to those in her party who want to drive through a race to the bottom Brexit deal that lowers rights and standards, sells off our national assets to the lowest bidder. It is clear that the Prime Minister’s failure to stand up to the warring factions of her own side have led to this impasse.”
Mr Corbyn said Mrs May’s “blindfold Brexit” was a “bridge to nowhere” and a “dangerous leap in the dark”. He added: “The choice for this Parliament should never be her deal or no deal: if this Government cannot get a good deal for this country then it has to make way for those who can.
“The Prime Minister faces a simple and inescapable choice: be buffeted this way and that way by the chaos of her own party, or back a deal that can win the support of Parliament and the people of this country.”
Conservative former home secretary Amber Rudd urged Mrs May to work on compromises with the EU “not just on behalf of the 52 per cent but also on behalf of the 48 per cent”.
West Yorkshire MP Yvette Cooper, Labour chairwoman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, called for an extension of Article 50 and warned: “There is a real fear that the Government will delay pinning down any deal until the last possible minute so that it can try and bounce Parliament with the threat that it is (Mrs May’s) deal or no deal.”
Mrs May said a process in Parliament has been legislated for, also telling MPs: “I do not believe that we should be extending Article 50.”