Remainers try to stop Brexit with ‘proxy war’
Boris allies say Irish issue is being exploited as Major raises prospect of new referendum
BORIS JOHNSON believes the Irish border is being used by Remainers to fight a “proxy war” to thwart Brexit as two former prime ministers raise the prospect of a second referendum.
The Foreign Secretary fears “ultraremainers” in Westminster are among those taking part in the conspiracy as Theresa May prepares to make her third major Brexit speech tomorrow.
On the day that the Prime Minister rejected Brussels’ proposal for the EU Withdrawal Agreement, Sir John Major made a speech in which he accused her of “bad politics”.
He spoke less than three hours after Michel Barnier, the EU’S chief Brexit negotiator, set out Brussels’ position, which demands that Northern Ireland remains part of the EU’S customs arrangements, effectively making the province an annexe of the EU.
Last night Brexit Secretary David Davis wrote to Tory MPS saying Britain will withhold paying its multi-billion pound Brexit divorce bill unless the EU reversed its calls concerning Northern Ireland, and vowed the Government would refuse proposals to give the bloc’s highest court the final say on disputes over Brexit.
Tomorrow, Tony Blair will use a speech in Brussels to urge EU leaders to help stop Brexit by making concessions that would make the British public change their minds about leaving the EU, triggering a second vote.
Sir John said Parliament should have the right to order a second referendum if MPS rejected any proposed Brexit deal, as he claimed Britain was heading for “economic self-harm”.
He also suggested Mrs May did not understand Irish politics and would endanger the peace process if she did not abandon her pledge to keep Britain out of a customs union with the EU.
Sir John’s speech was the latest in a series of events designed to undermine the argument for a clean Brexit. On Monday Jeremy Corbyn set out plans for Britain to remain part of a customs union with the EU if he became prime minister. Then on Tuesday came the leak of a letter on Ireland that Mr Johnson circulated to the Prime Minister and nine Cabinet ministers.
Remainers in the Cabinet are suspected of being behind the “deliberately misleading” leak that suggested he did not object to a hard border. David Lidington, the Cabinet Office Minister, was forced to answer an urgent question from Labour in the Commons yesterday about the leak, insisting Mr Johnson stood “four-square” behind the Good Friday Agreement.
Jacob Rees-mogg, who heads a group of more than 60 Leave-supporting Tory MPS, said any attempt by Labour to collude with the EU to stop Brexit would be “infamous”.
One ally of the Foreign Secretary said: “The ultra-remainers are determined to do everything in their power to stop the democratic will of the people who voted to leave. The Irish border issue is being used as a proxy war to stop Brexit.” Mrs May rejected the EU’S 120-page document, saying: “No UK Prime Minister could ever sign up to it.” But some Brexit-supporting MPS fear she will water down commitments made at last week’s Chequers meeting of the Brexit Cabinet sub-committee.
BRUSSELS has demanded that EU customs officers are allowed to operate in the UK in what would be an unprecedented arrangement for a sovereign country.
European Union plans to prevent an Irish hard border after Brexit will mean customs checks on goods arriving in Northern Ireland from Britain, Michel Barnier admitted yesterday in Brussels.
The EU’S chief Brexit negotiator was speaking after the European Commission published the 118-page draft Withdrawal Agreement, which translates into legally binding language the “Joint Report” agreed by the UK and EU in December last year.
The document calls for the creation of a “common regulatory area” between Ireland and Northern Ireland if no other solution to prevent a hard border between the two countries can be found.
This is legalese which means that in many areas relevant to the all-ireland economy, Northern Ireland would remain subject to EU rules and laws after Brexit if Britain’s preferred options of a free-trade agreement or a technical solution fail.
The commission believes this “backstop” is the only way to ensure there is no legal need for a return to the border checks of the past, and the possible outbreak of old hostilities, because Northern Irish goods would still adhere to EU standards.
However, it raises the possibility of border checks being introduced between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland. Without those controls, the EU would have no guarantee that goods from Britain, not subject to Brussels laws, could find their way into the Republic of Ireland.
Asked if the backstop would mean Eu-supervised checks in Northern Ireland on goods arriving from Britain, Mr Barnier told reporters: “In ports and airports there will be controls but I will not refer to it as a border.’
Buried in the document’s 168 legal articles, two protocols and two annexes, was a call for UK customs officers working “jointly” with the EU in order to enforce the rules of the EU single market. British officials were left stunned by the text, with legal experts in Whitehall unable to think of a single other country where such an arrangement existed.
“At first glance, this is unprecedented globally – to have one body (the EU) controlling customs inside another country (the UK),” the source said of the deal, which was swiftly dismissed by Theresa May as unworkable.
The commission insisted all options remained on the table, but it has previously dismissed British plans for a technical solution to prevent a hard border as “magical thinking” and insists the backstop must be part of the final Withdrawal Agreement.
Theresa May was only able to secure the backing of her Democratic Unionist Party allies, who hold the key to her slender majority, for the December agreement by promising there would be no new regulatory barriers between Northern Ireland and Britain.
But that promise to avoid a border in the Irish Sea was not replicated in the draft text, with Mr Barnier claiming that Mrs May’s promise was an internal matter for the UK. “My personal opinion is that this backstop will not call into question the constitutional or institutional order of the UK,” Mr Barnier said, before telling Britain to “keep calm and stay pragmatic”.
He insisted it was not his intention to “provoke” or “cause shock waves” with the document, which was published just days before Mrs May is to give a flagship speech on Brexit on Friday.
The creation of a common regulatory area would be a customs union in all but name. That presents a huge headache for Mrs May, who promised to lead Britain out of both the single market and customs union.
If the backstop is activated and Mrs May is to keep her promise to avoid any regulatory barriers between Northern Ireland and Britain, she would have to keep the UK in a customs union with the EU.
Asked by The Daily Telegraph if he was trying to bounce Mrs May into keeping Britain in a customs union after Brexit, Mr Barnier said he was offering pragmatic solutions. It was only on Monday that Jeremy Corbyn said Labour supported remaining in a customs union with the EU. Yesterday, Sir John Major, added his voice to those of Tory rebels calling for a customs union arrangement after Brexit.
Mr Barnier said: “I’ve met Mr Corbyn on three occasions and, together with his team, those have always been very useful discussions.”
However, he went on to say that he negotiated only with the Government. “The only thing I can say is that on the customs union this might be an element of the future relationship, but we’ll see what the position of the UK Government is first, that offers a significant part of the solution for Ireland,” he added. The uncompromising document also insisted EU judges should have the final say on any future UK-EU disputes over the implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement.
A joint committee of EU and UK representatives will sit on a panel overseeing the implementation of the treaty, but the document calls for the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to have the last word if the committee cannot agree.
References to the ECJ are dotted through the document, reflecting the commission’s insistence that it remains
‘The only thing I can say is that on the customs union this might be an element of the relationship’
the sole arbiter on questions of EU law. Were that status to be questioned, one EU official said yesterday, the Luxembourg-based court could annul the whole agreement.
Preserving its supremacy was the only way to guarantee legal certainty to businesses. However, it will mean the continued influence of the ECJ over British affairs, which Mrs May has pledged to end.
The document also repeated that Spain would have an effective veto over any Brexit deal applying to Gibraltar.