Cabinet ‘split’ over unilateral exit from Irish backstop deal
● DUP and Tory Brexiteers threaten to oppose agreement ● Conservative ministers consider quitting over negotiations
Cabinet ministers appeared at odds over whether the UK could secure a unilateral exit from a Brexit backstop deal on Northern Irish border arrangements.
Educationsecretarydamian Hinds said such an outcome would be “very, very unlikely”, while Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom insisted the UK must be able to leave any customs agreement.
Mr Hinds told BBC1’S The Andrew Marr Show a solution to the issue needed to be negotiated.
He said: “If you have too hard a line about saying, ‘well we must just have a totally unilateral exit, or there’s an absolutely fixed, hard end date’, that is... very, very unlikely that is going to be negotiable with the other side.
“On the other hand, people here rightly want comfort and they should be able to have comfort and confidence that it isn’t an open-ended thing.”
Mrs Leadsom insisted the UK “cannot be held against its will” in a backstop customs arrangement with the EU, and claimed MPS would not support a scenario in which Britain could not decide when to leave.
She told BBC Radio 5Live’s Pienaar’s Politics: “It cannot be a decision that can be overturned by the European Union, it must be capable for the United Kingdom to decide to leave that customs arrangement and it cannot be something
EMILY THORNBERRY
the European Union can hold us to.
“Frankly, it’s because that would be to then fail to fulfil on the will of the people expressed at the referendum and I very much doubt we’d get it through Parliament.”
Mrs Leadsom said: “I am working towards getting a deal that does not require the UK to be stuck, trapped in a customs arrangement.
“That’s what I’m working towards and I’m sticking in the Government to make sure that’s where we get to in the end.
“I don’t think something that trapped the UK in any arrangement against our will would be sellable to members of parliament.”
In a direct message to Prime Minister Theresa May, shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry told the BBC: “You cannot simply come to the House of Commons with a bit of nonsense that makes no sense.
“You cannot expect the Labour Party to save you from your own backbenchers who are saying this deal makes no sense – and everybody knows it doesn’t make sense.”
The comments came after hardline Tory Brexiteers and the DUP joined forces to warn they are prepared to vote downmrsmay’seuwithdrawal plans.
In a stark warning to the PM, Tory Brexiteer Steve Baker, deputy chairman of the 80-member European Research Group (ERG) of Conservative backbenchers, and the DUP’S Brexit spokesman, Sammy Wilson, said they would oppose any agreement which they thought threatened the union and could put a trade border down the Irish Sea.
Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, they said: “We share the Prime Minister’s ambition for an EU free trade agreement, but not at any price, and certainly not at the price of our union.
“If the Government makes the historic mistake of prioritising placating the EU over establishing an independent and whole UK, then, regrettably, we must vote against the deal.”
With the shock resignation of pro-europe transport minister Jo Johnson continuing to cause ructions in Tory ranks, Mrs May is running out of time to seal an EU exit agreement.
Hope of getting the Cabinet to sign off on Brexit deal proposals this week appeared to be rapidly receding, as it was reported the EU had rejected London’s plans for an independent arbitration clause that could allow the UK to quit a backstop deal on the Northern Ireland border.
In the wake of Mr Johnson’s resignation, there have been reports that other ministers are considering quitting over Brexit.
Brexiteers have insisted that the UK should not get involved with a potentially permanent backstop customs union agreement with the EU as the price of avoiding a hard border in Northern Ireland.
“You cannot simply come to the House of Commons with a bit of nonsense that makes no sense”
If you ever had any doubts that the European Union leadership would kick a proverbial opponent when down then you only need to look at the treatment they are dishing out to the Prime Minister.
This column has not shirked from apportioning blame for the appalling negotiations on the UK’S poor strategy, tactics and communications. Nevertheless, the EU had an ally in Theresa May, a Remainer who, together with the British civil service and most especially HM Treasury, could be relied upon to see Brussels’ point of view on most issues. She foolishly adopted the EU’S timescale and agenda; she has conceded ECJ jurisdiction in many areas when she said there would be none; using Orwellian newspeak she has rebranded the Single Market as adopting “a common rule book for goods and agri-foods” and called the Customs Union a “Ukwide backstop” so we might stay in both without an exit.
Yet in December the EU humbled her over the withdrawal agreement by imposing a wholly unnecessary Irish backstop that she should have resisted, and having learned from that humiliating capitulation they now seek further concessions. Media reports suggest Brussels has torpedoed the latest variation of her Chequers-minus Plan and are insisting that EU boats must continue to have access to the British fisheries after we have left the Common Fisheries Policy.
Whatever plan May is able to have accepted by the EU is only likely to get through parliament with the support of the Labour Party, but Corbyn and Mcdonnell would far rather reject it in the belief defeat would force her to go to the country and they might achieve a change in government.
Indeed, there are strong rumours circulating that the Conservative Party is being readied for a general election to offer the nation the PM’S “deal” or face a Corbyn government. I believe this is an empty threat designed to instil discipline in the ranks – for Tory MPS would have to approve a general election and these turkeys are not likely to vote for Christmas. More likely would be a leadership challenge and change of Prime Minister.
The mood in the House of Commons is febrile. The resignation of the Transport Minister, Jo Johnson, the Remain-supporting younger brother of Boris Johnson, only served to confirm how Theresa May has failed to satisfy any of the competing groups within the Conservative Party.
What then can be done, what alternatives are there?
The MP Nick Boles is pushing the idea that the UK should take up Norway’s arrangement by confirming membership of the European Economic Area so the UK is temporarily in the EU Single Market but outside the Common Fisheries Policy and the Common Agriculture Policy. We would then use that position to negotiate a free trade deal with the EU and then leave the EEA. This arrangement without a time limit would come at a price, however; there would be an annual transfer of funds to the EU running into billions, we would have next to no say in the rules our businesses would have to adopt, the European Court of Justice would still have significant jurisdiction over the UK and, troubling to many people, we would have to accept freedom of movement.
It is an arrangement not without criticism in Norway – especially from left-of-centre, for it was designed as a means to take Norway