May warns Brexiteers: Back my EU customs plan... or deal with chaos
THERESA May faced down the Brexiteers in her Cabinet by warning them they should swing behind her customs union plan – or risk the chaos of a ‘no deal’.
The British prime minister spoke out after being rebuffed at a meeting of her Brexit ‘war cabinet’ on Wednesday, when she tried to win support for her plan for a new ‘customs partnership’. Under the scheme, the UK would collect tariffs for the EU but would still be free to strike free trade deals with other countries.
Ministers led by Brexit secretary David Davis and foreign secretary Boris Johnson defeated the proposal by six votes to five. But at the end of the meeting, this paper has learned, Mrs May made clear to the Brexiteers that she would persist with the plan, telling them: ‘We have to have a solution that can work.’
Mrs May’s Brexit adviser Olly Robbins has told her the partnership is the only way the UK could cut new trade deals while avoiding a hard Irish border – and is also the only plan likely to be accepted by the EU and MPs.