J’ACCUSE! Cox claims Tory toff Letwin colluded with EU’s Barnier
AN EXTRAORDINARY row broke out last night after the Government’s top lawyer accused the Tory MP dubbed the ‘Prime Minister for the Day’ of conspiring with Brussels to keep Britain in the EU’s customs union.
Attorney General Geoffrey Cox has told fellow MPs he believes Oliver Letwin is co-ordinating his bid to wrestle control of Brexit negotiations directly with the European Commission’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier.
Eminent QC Mr Cox warned colleagues that he thinks Mr Letwin is attempting to engineer Britain staying tied to EU customs and tariff rules and is being helped by Brussels to do so.
Old Etonian Mr Letwin has worked with Commons Speaker John Bercow to give MPs the whip hand over Downing Street on how to break the Brexit impasse through a series of indicative votes designed to water down the UK’s exit or halt it all together.
However, the Europhile’s plan misfired last week after no soft Brexit solution was found to command a majority in Parliament – but staying in the customs union was a popular option, achieving the backing of 265 MPs.
Another attempt to poll MPs on what they want to happen will take place tomorrow, and possibly again on Wednesday, after Commons rules were ripped up to allow backbenchers to seize control of the agenda.
After the unprecedented procedural changes – only made possible with the backing of Mr Bercow – Mr Letwin, 62, was nicknamed ‘the real PM’ and ‘ PM for the day’, marking a dramatic turnaround for a man whose career has been littered with gaffes and controversy.
But his actions left Cabinet Ministers fuming, with Mr Cox opening up to several colleagues about his theory in a significant deepening to the ongoing Tory civil war.
Sources have told this newspaper that the respected lawyer informed ‘at least half a dozen’ MPs that he believed Mr Letwin was being helped by Brussels to undermine the Government.
One Minister said: ‘He thinks that they have had agreed to wording around staying in the customs union in order to give the attempt a maximum chance of success.’ However, Commission insiders denied any contact, i nsisting ‘ the ball is now more than ever entirely in the UK court’. A senior EU official told The Mail on Sunday: ‘A solution to the current dilemma can only be found in London.’ In the first round of votes on Wednesday, none of the eight options considered – including staying in the customs union and a second referendum – was able command a majority. However, the MPs involved – including Mr Letwin and fellow Tory Nick Boles as well as Labour’s Yvette Cooper and Hilary Benn – have plotted over the weekend to try to coalesce around one of the various proposals before the fresh votes tomorrow. Last night, Mr Boles accused the Government of attempting to frighten MPs into backing the PM’s deal with the claim about Mr Letwin and the threat of a customs union.
He told The Mail on Sunday: ‘ While we have monitored very closely the public statements by Mr Barnier and his team as to what they would be willing to accept, we have had no contact with any part of the EU to discuss it.’
He added that he could ‘understand why there is an effort to frighten people into backing the PM’s deal, but we have always felt it would be quite wrong to open a separate channel of negotiation.’