COME CLEAN ON BREXIT BACKSTOP MAY IS WARNED
Labour and DUP demand key legal advice to ministers is made public
‘An uncertain future’
THERESA May was facing pressure last night to publish the official legal advice about any proposed Brexit agreement.
Cabinet ministers including Michael Gove want the Prime Minister to show them the full legal advice on the so-called Northern Ireland backstop.
Both Labour and the Democratic Unionists, whose party props up the Government, have gone further, demanding the advice is made public.
Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, even threatened yesterday to force the Government’s hand in Parliament.
Downing Street is expected to resist the demands and last night senior officials insisted it was longstanding practice not to comment on legal advice.
The row broke out as a string of ministers were allowed to read the current text of the withdrawal agreement – minus the section on Northern Ireland, which is still under negotiation.
Described as ‘95 per cent complete’, the agreement covers the divorce bill, rights of EU nationals living in the UK and other issues.
Environment Secretary Mr Gove says he wants the legal advice to be shown to the Cabinet so ministers can examine how the UK could get out of the backstop customs arrangement with the EU.
Mrs May’s proposes to keep the whole of the UK in a customs union as a backstop if no other arrangement can be found. This would help avoid a hard border with the Republic of Ireland. But it would curtail Britain’s ability to negotiate free-trade deals and Brexiteers fear the UK would be left in permanent limbo.
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP’s chief whip, said publishing the advice would be in the public interest. ‘It’s because it affects the whole UK, therefore it shouldn’t just be the DUP that sees this advice, or the Government,’ he said.
‘If the House of Commons is going to have a meaningful vote on a deal that includes, and upon which this legal advice is very, very important, then I think people are entitled to know what that advice is.’
Sir Keir, who spent yesterday in Brussels for discussions with EU officials, warned of the dangers of a so-called ‘blind Brexit’ in which the details on future relations are unclear. He warned Labour was preparing to vote down any proposal if the accompanying document outlining the future relationship lacked detail.
On the legal advice, he said: ‘That legal advice should be made available to Parliament when we come to vote on a deal. We need the position, we need to know precisely what advice has been given.
‘I hope the Government has the good sense to realise that this is so important that it makes it available in Parliament for us to see.
‘If they don’t then obviously we’ll have to think about what devices, what procedures, we can use to force them to do so.
‘My invitation to the PM is, given the importance of the backstop, given the binding nature of the treaty that Parliament is going to have to look at, it is right that this advice is disclosed at the appropriate time so MPs can see it.’
He added: ‘The concern is that the future relationship with the EU will become a vague description, a vague document that is essentially a blind Brexit.
‘We’re here to deliver the message and to discuss the fact it is not acceptable to expect the Labour party or any parliamentarian to vote for a blind Brexit.’
Mrs May yesterday phoned European Council president Donald Tusk to push for an agreement. She spoke to German chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday evening. Meanwhile concern about Brexit has risen sharply among over-65s.
In a survey, 61 per cent said they were worried about the impact of Brexit, a 34 percentage point increase since September 2016, when Which? began recording the data. Among those aged 18 to 34, 64 per cent said they were worried.
Caroline Normand, of Which?, said: ‘Consumers want a Brexit that protects and enhances their rights and gives them access to a wider range of high-quality, affordable goods and services.’
LABOUR went into last year’s election on a firm promise to ‘accept the referendum result and put the national interest first’. Its manifesto went on: ‘We will reject “no deal” as a viable option and if needs be negotiate transitional arrangements to avoid a “cliff edge” for the economy.’
Yet look at the party today. While Theresa May bends over backwards to secure precisely the transitional arrangements Labour said it wanted, shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer threatens to mobilise opposition MPs to vote down any agreement she may reach with Brussels.
Never mind that he himself has said withdrawing from the EU without a deal would be a catastrophe. If he carries out his threat, he will make just such an eventuality more likely, pushing the country ever closer to that cliff edge.
That’s not to mention his persistent efforts to undermine Britain’s negotiators by refusing to rule out a second referendum. So much for his party’s solemn pledge to honour the result of the first.
As for Labour’s claim to have the national interest at heart, nobody will be deceived for an instant. Indeed, the party hierarchy has shown itself prepared to gamble with countless livelihoods, simply to make trouble for the Government.
Leave aside the economic carnage Jeremy Corbyn and his Marxist cohorts would wreak if they were ever to get their hands on the nation’s purse strings. With a deal now tantalisingly close, playing games with Britain’s future for party advantage is base politics of the most contemptible kind.
This paper therefore urges decent, patriotic Labour MPs to make up their own minds about any agreement Mrs May brings back from Brussels.
Yes, it is reasonable to demand transparency over the Government’s legal advice, so that the full implications of anything agreed can be understood. But if the proposed deal safeguards jobs and the nation’s interests, while honouring the commitment to Brexit, MPs of every party will earn voters’ gratitude and respect by throwing their weight behind it.