Mordaunt resurrects the ‘max fac’ Brexit
In what is seen as a leadership bid, minister unveils £10bn plan to strike trade deal with EU
PENNY MORDAUNT is expected to be the first Cabinet minister to unveil detailed plans for a “managed no deal” to slash the UK’S Brexit bill, in a move that will fuel leadership speculation. The International Development Secretary is set to unveil her own plans to unblock the Brexit logjam by agreeing the two-year transition period after Britain leaves the EU on March 29 next year, to allow the UK to develop a “maximum facilitation” scheme to trade with the European Union.
This would see the UK paying the EU £10billion a year while plans are laid for an organised exit in 2021. A £20 billion bill to take Britain out of the EU is just half the £39 billion “Brexit bill” agreed with Brussels.
Ms Mordaunt is among a number of senior Eurosceptic Conservatives vying to succeed Theresa May as leader when the PM quits before the 2022 general election. Ms Mordaunt hopes to set out her plans on Monday night, on the eve of a Cabinet meeting to give serious consideration to no-deal planning.
Last night Jacob Rees-mogg, chairman of the European Research Group of Conservative MPS, said: “It is practical, a compromise. We essentially pay for a free-trade deal, which purists would not like but to my mind seems to be the best way of getting us out of the situation we are in. It gives you 21 months to negotiate a free-trade deal or you end up leaving on WTO [World Trade Organisation] terms.”
Under Ms Mordaunt’s plan Britain would develop a “max fac” (standing for “maximum facilitation”) scheme to trade with the EU, avoiding border delays through new technology and preapproving big exporters via a trusted trader scheme – something rejected by Theresa May before her Chequers deal.
It means companies need only pay duties every few months rather than every time goods or services cross the border. Boris Johnson, the former foreign secretary, had been an enthusiastic supporter of the “max fac” plan over the alternative “new customs partnership” when both were being considered by Mrs May before the Chequers deal prompted his resignation.
The Daily Telegraph understands seven Cabinet ministers, including Jeremy Hunt, Sajid Javid and Gavin Williamson, back a form of “managed no deal” as a Plan B. But it is resisted by five Cabinet Remainers, who indicated they would quit if the Prime Minister attempted to leave without a deal, saying it would bring economic catastrophe.
One Cabinet minister said failing to prepare for no deal would be an “abject surrender” to Brussels. “People who want a deal… cannot get it by waving the white flag,” he said. “We need to work towards no deal. I do not believe it will be a catastrophe if we plan properly.”
Remain ministers are urging the Prime Minister to hold non-binding “indicative” votes on the options.
But a Cabinet source said it would show there was no consensus. “She is not going to get the numbers,” he said, adding: “More and more options are being taken off the table. We are getting closer to a second referendum.”
♦ Going to EU countries will cost £6.29 after Brexit, the EC confirmed, contradicting claims the fee was part of “Project Fear”. The UK will be a “third country” and Britons will lose EU citizenship.