The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Britain should be open to longer EU transition period, says Clark
A Cabinet minister left the door open to extending Britain’s transition out of the European Union as backbenchers warned Theresa May the deadline must remain intact.
Under the current timetable the implementation period is set to end in December 2020.
But Business Secretary Greg Clark refused to rule out an extension to the arrangements.
He said yesterday: “At all times we need to be guided by the evidence on this, speaking to the people that run this very successful port (Dover) and the same with Eurotunnel, in order to make sure that we can continue the success, and that we don’t have frictions, there are things that would need to (be) put in place, computer systems for example, posts at the border, even if they checked, automatically, numberplates.
“What we need to assess is how long it would reasonably take to put in practice and then it seems to me that any reasonable person would have to be guided by the facts and the evidence.”
Mrs May will bring together her Cabinet on Friday at Chequers to thrash out details of a white paper setting out the UK’s plans for areas such as trade.
Brexiteers oppose the PM’s favoured option of a customs partnership with the EU, which would see the UK collect tariffs set by the EU customs union on goods entering the country on behalf of the bloc.
Their “max fac” alternative would, rather than scrapping customs checks, use technology to minimise the need for them. Both options have been dismissed by the EU.
Asked if the customs partnership option was still on the table, Mr Clark said: “Yes.”
Mrs May faced a warning from backbenchers not to extend the transition period beyond December 2020.
Andrea Jenkyns, who quit a junior government role to campaign on Brexit, delivered a letter to the PM on Friday signed by more than 30 Tories.
The group said: “Our departure must be absolute. We must not remain entangled with the EU’s institutions if this restricts our ability to exercise our sovereignty as an independent nation. Anything less will be a weakening of our democracy. Britain must stand firm.”
Senior Tory Sir Graham Brady, however, warned that disunity in the Cabinet was making Mrs May’s negotiations with Brussels more difficult and would alienate voters.