48 HOURS TO SORT BREXIT

May has until tomorrow night to break deadlock as Leadsom warns against being ‘trapped’ in customs union

THERESA May last night had just 48 hours to break the Brexit deadlock – or be forced to start spending billions on a ‘no deal’.

With little sign of progress, Downing Street was staring at a deadline of tomorrow night to prevent the talks drifting into December.

Details of the timetable emerged as the PM came under pressure from Eurosceptic ministers not to agree anything which would leave Britain trapped in a customs union with the EU.

Leader of the Commons Andrea Leadsom said allowing the EU to hold this country ‘against its will’ in a customs arrangement would not win the agreement of MPs. She said it must be ‘time limited’ and cannot be something ‘the EU can hold us to’.

She added: ‘That would be to fail to fulfil the will of the people expressed at the referendum. I very much doubt we would get it through Parliament.’

‘It’s not realistic or honourable to expect the UK to accept a backstop that removes the power of the UK to take a sovereign decision on removing ourselves from that,’ she told the BBC.

Hopes of an early agreement were scotched last week after the EU rejected Mrs May’s plans for a so-called ‘arbitration mechanism’.

It was designed to reassure Brexiteers the UK cannot be held indefinitely in the Northern Ireland backstop – the position of last resort designed to maintain the open border on the island of Ireland.

The negotiations resumed early yesterday morning with little sign of movement after the EU rejected the UK plan, drawn up by the Attorney General Geoffrey Cox, and insisted on a role for the European Court of Justice.

Internally, Downing Street officials are working to a tomorrow night deadline for a deal to be done – or face the timetable drifting into December. That would force ministers to activate various no-deal spending plans for which £3.5billion has been set aside, including IT infrastructure for customs and booking space on cross-border ferries to ensure vital supplies can get into the country.

If negotiations continue until the EU Council on December 13/14, then getting the Withdrawal Agreement through the Commons before the winter break would become ‘very difficult’. Ministers also fear the growing prospect of no deal could cause panic in the markets. Last night officials insisted Mrs May would ‘at no point sign up to something that’s unacceptable and particularly isn’t saleable. This is going to go to the wire and the PM wants a deal but not at any cost’. Brexiteers, including Trade Secretary Dr Liam Fox, have argued the UK should be able to unilaterally agree to walk away from the Northern Ireland backstop. But appearing on the Andrew Marr Show yesterday morning, Education Secretary Damian Hinds said such an outcome would be ‘very, very unlikely’.

Negotiators are also working on so-called ‘level playing field’ provisions which could see Britain forced to accept tax, state aid, completion and workers’ rights rules as part of the backstop. One ministerial source said the proposals as they stand were ‘worse than the Treaty of Versailles’, the agreement signed by Germany after the First World War which was widely seen as a ‘punishment’ for the war.

‘We will never get out of it, everything we’re signing up to get rid of the border will stay permanently,’ the source said.

Steve Baker, deputy chairman of the European Research Group of Tory Brexiteers and Sammy Wilson, the DUP’s Brexit spokesman, said they would vote against the deal if Mrs May refuses to back down.

‘We share the Prime Minister’s ambition for an EU free trade agreement, but not at any price and certainly not at the price of our Union.

‘If the Government makes the historic mistake of prioritising placating the EU over establishing an independent and whole UK, then regrettably we must vote against the deal,’ they said. Around 50 Tory Brexiteer MPs have vowed to vote against the deal, and positions are also hardening among Remain supporters.

Former Education Secretary Justine Greening told The Observer Mrs May’s plans would leave the country in the ‘worst of all worlds’ and amounted to ‘the biggest giveaway of sovereignty in modern times.’

Comment – Page 16

‘Worse than the Versailles Treaty’