May steps in as Davis and Hammond clash
Brexit Secretary and the Chancellor disagree over Britain’s place in the single market and customs union
THERESA MAY was forced to intervene after two of her most important Brexit Cabinet ministers appeared to fall out over the terms of Britain’s EU exit.
The dispute centred on whether Britain will leave both the single market and customs union, or remain in a lengthy transition period to allow companies to adapt.
David Davis, the Exiting EU Secretary, told a conference in London that the UK will be out of the EU customs union and single market by March 2019. He said he expected the UK to have left the arrangements within the two-year timetable set out under the Article 50 process.
But Chancellor Philip Hammond repeated his call for a transitional deal to avoid a “disruptive and dangerous cliff edge” in trading links with the EU after Brexit. The row also dragged in Boris Johnson, with Mr Hammond taking a swipe at the Foreign Secretary’s position of “having our cake and eating it” by securing all the benefits of EU membership without the drawbacks.
The Brexit Secretary said he believed exit talks would be done by the twoyear deadline. Asked if the UK would be straight out of the customs union, he replied: “I would have thought so.”
Mr Davis said any transition period was likely to end in 2022 as he described Mr Hammond’s previous comments on the potential timescale as “not quite consistent with one another”. He added: “What he’s actually said, the most important thing is it’s got to be done before the election so that’s a maximum of three years.”
Mr Davis said he was “entirely aligned” with the Chancellor on putting jobs and prosperity first. “I firmly believe that our approach puts jobs and prosperity first,” he said.
He added: “My job is to bring back control of migration to Westminster. It is not to slam the door on immigration. We will bring immigration down, but in a way and at a pace that does not cause labour shortages, or worse, undermine new talent.” But the remarks were contradicted by Mr Hammond, who said that there had to be a “smooth and orderly path” to the new arrangements under any Brexit deal.
He said: “Whether it is the British importer renewing a contract with a French component supplier, the German car exporter investing in its UK distribution network, the Dutch grower who is making a contract with a British supermarket chain or the Italian electricity company hedging its exposures through London’s financial markets, they all need certainty, well ahead of time, that they won’t have tariffs suddenly imposed on them partway through their contracts, or that their shipments won’t face customs delays and bureaucratic costs, or that the enforceability of their contracts will not be called into question.”
Mrs May was forced to calm the row. Her official spokesman said: “The position the PM has set out many times hasn’t changed. What we want to do is give certainty to businesses, she has been clear that that’s what we will do and that’s the position of David Davis and Philip Hammond also.
“Leaving the EU means we will be leaving the customs union, what that looks like and the phase of implementation will be all subject to negotiation. Everyone is on the same page.”