Cabinet at war over free movement

Showdown between Javid and Hammond over EU workers revealed in Chequers minutes

SAJID JAVID and Philip Hammond have clashed over free movement after the Chancellor said that European Union workers should be given “preferential” treatment in an attempt to win

over Angela Merkel and strike a postbrexit trade deal.

The Daily Telegraph has learnt that official minutes from the Chequers summit state that the Chancellor said he “disagreed with the Home Secretary on labour mobility and ending free movement”.

Mr Hammond made the comments after the Home Secretary told Cabinet at the meeting that “free movement had to end” and that there could be “no back door”. Mr Javid argued that “labour mobility” should be limited to current international obligations. Mr Hammond said the Government should “keep options open” for “preferential mobility arrangements”, and should be willing to “negotiate on this point”.

“Such an agreement would be very important for the chancellor of Germany,” he said. “If the UK sought her help to deliver this deal, it would need to be prepared to negotiate on this point.”

Eurosceptic Tory MPS increasingly fear the Prime Minister is poised to make a significant climbdown on free movement as part of Brexit negotiations.

A Government source said the discussion was a “difference of opinion between two people”. “The Prime Minister has said many times that we will set out our future immigration plans in the White Paper,” the source said. “It is completely non-negotiable that free movement will end.”

A Cabinet source added that while Mr Hammond “categorically” believed free movement must come to an end, he disagreed with Mr Javid on “mobility arrangements as part of free trade deals”. The source said: “The minutes do not accurately reflect Mr Hammond’s position.”

It came as Dominic Raab, the new Brexit Secretary, was told by business leaders at his grace-and-favour house in Kent yesterday that he must put migration “on the table” in trade talks.

They told Mr Raab that “an open and controlled migration system will be the most effective replacement for EU free movement rules”.

Tory Eurosceptics have repeatedly raised concerns that “labour mobility” will be used to continue free movement after Brexit “by the back door”.

Boris Johnson, the former foreign secretary, warned in his resignation speech that there could be further climbdowns on migration after the Chequers agreement.

The Home Secretary said at Chequers that the UK should be “open to talent from across the world” and should not automatically give EU workers preferential treatment.

The White Paper committed to a “labour mobility framework”, which will enable EU citizens to “travel freely” to the UK without a visa after Brexit for tourism or “temporary business

LEO VARADKAR, the Irish leader has been ridiculed for threatening to block British planes flying over Ireland if the UK reclaims sovereignty over its territorial waters, with one Cabinet minister branding his comments “unimaginable nonsense”.

The Taoiseach was last night rebuked by Downing Street over the incendiary remarks, with the Prime Minister’s deputy spokesman stating that he was “wrong” to suggest Ireland could “simply stop” flights from Britain.

Speaking in Dublin on Wednesday, Mr Varadkar claimed his government could close Irish airspace to one of its largest trading partners if Theresa May decided to restrict Irish fishermen’s access when the UK leaves the Common Fisheries Policy.

On the eve of a keynote speech by Mrs May in Belfast, Mr Varadkar said: “You can’t have your cake and eat it. You can’t take back your waters and then expect to take back other people’s sky. The situation at the moment is that the United Kingdom is part of the single European sky, and if they leave the EU they are not and that does mean that if there was a no deal, hard Brexit next March, the planes would not fly.

“If they want their planes to fly over our skies, they would need to take that into account.”

His comments were quickly jumped upon by Tory Eurosceptics, who pointed out that agreements governing over-flights were not under the jurisdiction of the European Union but the International Air Services Transit Agreement.

Asked about the remarks yesterday, Mrs May’s spokesman said: “It is wrong to say that Ireland could simply stop the UK from flying over its land as a result of Brexit because over-flight rights are not guaranteed by the EU but by multinational treaty, which both ourselves and Ireland are signed up to.

“We are confident that we will reach an agreement which maintains our aviation access.”

Separately, a Cabinet source told The Daily Telegraph that Mr Varadkar’s claims were “impractical, unenforceable, unimaginable nonsense that would damage everyone”.

Mr Varadkar, who has been accused by members of the Democratic Unionist Party of pursuing a “vicious vendetta” against Britain, was also branded an “airhead” by Jacob Rees-mogg, the leader of the Conservative European Research Group.

“Air traffic control continued between Russia and Ukraine after Russia invaded the Crimea, so this idea is silly,” he told the Sun.

“On the other hand, most flights from the EU to America pass through our air traffic control, so this rather lightweight Irish gentleman is proposing an absurd act.”

Others pointed out that if Britain were to initiate tit-for-tat measures it would have profound consequences for Ireland, with airlines flying to Europe only able to proceed directly to Spain, Portugal and the Canaries.

Dublin to London is also one of the busiest aviation routes in the world.

‘Air traffic control continued between Russia and Ukraine after Russia invaded the Crimea, so this idea is silly’