Gove’s deputy backs ‘Norway’ back-up plan
MICHAEL GOVE’S deputy has spoken out in favour of a Norway-style arrangement with the European Union if Theresa May’s Brexit deal is blocked by MPs.
George Eustice, a Brexiteer who is a senior minister in the environment department, said there was “growing momentum” behind a plan to remain part of the European Economic Area (EEA), outside of the EU, under which he said the UK would have “full control over our farming and fisheries” as well as its trade policy with the rest of the world.
His intervention follows reports that Mr Gove, the Environment Secretary and a leading pro-Leave campaigner, had held talks with colleagues about adopting a Norway-style “Plan B” if Mrs May’s deal collapses.
The arrangement would require the UK to follow single market rules, including allowing continued freedom of movement, as well as to pay into the EU budget. A version advocated by Nick Boles, another ally of Mr Gove, would also require the country to remain in a customs union with the EU.
In a posting on his website, Mr Eustice describes the UK’s departure from the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), of which Norway remains a member, as an “historic error”.
“If the Prime Minister’s deal fails to command a majority, we could opt for a model similar to Norway and Iceland,” he said. “Under this option we would leave the EU but remain a signatory to the EEA or re-join the looser EFTA group. We would have full control of our farming and our fisheries, free trade with Europe, and our own trade policy with the rest of the world. We would have to align some of our laws with the EU, but we would be an independent country again.”
He added: “It was actually Britain that created the EFTA in the late Fifties as a rival idea to the EU. Initially we had an alliance of seven countries, includ-
‘We would have full control of our farming and fisheries, free trade with Europe and our own trade policy’
ing Sweden, Norway, Spain, Portugal and Ireland. The EU only had six members.
“We made a terrible mistake in 1972 by abandoning what we had created and surrendering our independence to the EU. It was a foreign policy blunder caused by the collapse of national confidence in the aftermath of the empire.
“Maybe, in the end, we will put right that historic error and pick up where we left off.” Asked in December about the Norway plan, Mr Gove told the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show that it was “better than EU membership” but would leave the UK with less control over its borders and money than under Mrs May’s deal.
Amber Rudd, the Work and Pensions Secretary, has said the proposal championed by Mr Boles “seems plausible not just in terms of the country but in terms of where the MPs are”.
But senior pro-Brexit MPs have insisted the arrangement would keep the UK tied too closely to the EU.