Breakthrough on Brexit in days?
As MPs and peers are put on standby to vote, could we see...
MPs and peers were last night on standby to hold votes next week after hopes rose that a Brexit trade deal could be agreed within days.
Negotiators in Brussels were continuing to attempt to hammer out a deal, with the EU understood to want to conclude talks on Friday or sunday.
If an agreement is reached by the end of this week, MPs could vote on it on Monday, with peers having their say on Tuesday before the legislation gets Royal Assent on Wednesday.
Both sides confirmed yesterday that progress has been made on the key sticking point of what will happen if the UK and EU decide no longer to have common standards on labour, the environment and state subsidies – referred to as the ‘level playing field’. The EU is understood to have ditched its demand for a ‘ratchet clause’ to keep the UK tied to future changes.
Earlier yesterday, Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg said a Brexit deal could be agreed as late as New Year’s Eve with MPs given a vote in January after it has come into effect.
He said the move would be ‘theoretically possible’, but admitted it would ‘raise legal questions’. However, he stressed that if a trade agreement is finalised sooner it could be fasttracked through Parliament in days.
Boris Johnson had insisted that no British prime minister could accept a situation where the EU could automatically ‘punish’ the UK with tariffs if it failed to follow new regulations from Brussels. Negotiators are finalising plans for a joint dispute mechanism that could be triggered if a difference in rules causes a significant distortion on trade.
Mr Rees-Mogg will announce tomorrow whether MPs will sit next week – which will be seen as a crucial indicator of how close the two sides are to agreeing a Brexit deal.
On his Conservative Home podcast yesterday, he admitted there was a possibility the deal could be voted on after December 31 if talks do go right down to the wire.
He said: ‘Normally you would expect a treaty to be ratified before it comes into force, but if both sides accept that ratification is done in a different way, that is theoretically possible.
‘But you get into the issue of the domestic legal effects of an international treaty.’
Mr Rees-Mogg said he would normally expect it to take five to six days from a deal being reached to the necessary legislation being passed.
But he suggested this timeframe could be ‘squeezed’ as ‘you can really, really truncate the parliamentary process if necessary and if there’s a will to do it’.
He added: ‘Bear in mind that Parliament managed to pass the legislation to remove a King Emperor [a reference to the abdication of Edward VIII in 1936] within 24 hours.
‘so Parliament can act very quickly when necessary.’
Mr Johnson told the Cabinet yesterday that leaving the EU without a free trade agreement remained the ‘most likely outcome’ but negotiations would continue.
His official spokesman said: ‘ The Prime Minister opened Cabinet with an update on the ongoing negotiations with the EU.
‘He re-emphasised the desire to reach a free trade agreement – but not at any cost – and reiterated that any agreement must respect the independence and sovereignty of the UK. The Prime Minister made clear that not being able to reach an agreement and ending the transition period on Australian-style terms remained the most likely outcome but committed to continuing to negotiate on the remaining areas of disagreement.’ Meanwhile, Irish foreign minister simon Coveney told broadcaster RTE: ‘I think what we’re seeing this week – having had a number of stalls in this process – is slow but, at the same time, some progress. My understanding is we’re making some progress in that area [level playing field]...Because negotiating teams have gone really quiet here, that’s an indication to me that there is a serious if difficult negotiation continuing.’