Rees-Mogg: PM won’t concede too much to EU

Leader of the House seeks to reassure Brexiteers as some fear Northern Ireland plan would damage Union

JACOB REES-MOGG today issues an appeal to Leavers to back Boris Johnson’s efforts to secure a Brexit deal, warning that “compromise will inevitably be needed”.

Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, the leader of the Commons insists that “as a Leaver, Boris can be trusted”.

Invoking an idiom that appears to concede that Mr Johnson may make concessions unpopular with Brexiteers, Mr Rees-Mogg says: “If he thinks the ship of state is worth an extra ha’p’orth of tar he deserves support.”

The intervention comes amid mounting concern among some Brexiteer MPs over suggestions that the Prime Minister has offered the EU a compromise that would see Northern Ireland legally outside of the EU’s customs union, but remaining in a close arrangement with Brussels, which would create a border in the Irish Sea.

If Mr Johnson succeeds in reaching an agreement with the EU this week he will need to seek the approval of MPs in an emergency sitting of the Commons on Saturday – the last day for him to do so before rebel legislation requires him to delay Brexit beyond Oct 31.

Even a small clutch of pro-Leave MPs refusing to support the plan could prevent its passage.

Meanwhile, a senior Government source warned that a push by pro-EU MPs to force a vote on making the deal subject to a referendum was “undermining” Mr Johnson’s negotiating position.

“The ‘ surrender act’ has already had a negative impact on the UK’s negotiating hand and this continued talk of referendum undermines the Government’s negotiating position further,” the source said. The senior figure warned that Jeremy Corbyn, who could back the poll, would “simply keep us in a logjam where nothing gets done and we spend years arguing about the EU”.

Last night, in an apparent warning shot over the rumoured compromise, Nigel Dodds, the Westminster leader of the pro-Leave DUP, which has propped up the Conservatives since 2017, insisted that Northern Ireland must “remain fully part of the UK customs union”.

In a further sign of trouble for Mr Johnson, a senior Eurosceptic MP said: “We got Boris in so we wouldn’t be let down. But there is a lot of alarm that this may not be a tolerable deal.”

And Owen Paterson, the former Northern Ireland secretary, claimed the rumoured proposals appeared to amount to “Backstop Mark 2”, referring

to Theresa May’s plan rejected by MPs on the basis it could leave the UK tied to Brussels indefinitely.

But sources said Brexiteer figures such as Martin Howe, a Eurosceptic QC, Shanker Singham, a trade expert involved in drafting plans advocated by pro-Leave MPs, Barnabas Reynolds, a City lawyer, and Edgar Millar, the convener of the Economists for Free Trade group, were among those whose work had been used to construct the plan – even suggesting they were lined up for potential peerages or knighthoods.

And today, as David Frost, the Prime Minister’s chief negotiator, leads eleventh-hour talks in Brussels, Mr ReesMogg states of Mr Johnson: “His charisma and intellect are undoubted, and his electoral appeal has been tested and proved in London. In the final stages of the Brexit negotiation, compromise will inevitably be needed, something even the staunchest Leavers recognise albeit unwillingly – but as a Leaver Boris can be trusted. He wants to take back control and has dedicated his political career to this noble cause.

“If he thinks the ship of state is worth an extra ha’p’orth of tar he deserves support.”

But Mr Paterson said: “The rumoured agreement looks complicated and messy. An outcome which left Northern Ireland having to accept laws imposed upon it without being able to elect politicians who could change them would be clearly unacceptable and store up problems in Northern Ireland long after Brexit is resolved.” Kate Hoey, the pro-Brexit Labour MP, hinted that she shared Mr Paterson’s concerns.

Today a coalition of more than 30 pro-Brexit lobby groups launches The Brexit Pledge, which it says is intended to “demonstrate Brexit unity in the face of Parliament’s opposition to it”.

Mr Johnson is due to update the Cabinet on the talks and progress on a Brexit deal at lunch time today, after negotiators began intensive talks yesterday morning behind closed doors.

Mr Frost will be reporting directly to Mr Johnson and his team in London, including Sir Mark Sedwill, the Cabinet Secretary, to prevent any of the details from leaking.

Treasury sources yesterday revealed that Mr Johnson’s breakthrough meeting with Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister, on Thursday in Merseyside was preceded by a 30-minute telephone call between Sajid Javid, the Chancellor, and his Irish counterpart Paschal Donohoe, in which they focused “on the customs issue” and “agreed that there was still a possible pathway to a deal.”

Last night Mr Johnson said: “Getting Brexit done by October 31 is absolutely crucial, and we are continuing to work on an exit deal so we can move on to negotiating a future relationship based on free trade and friendly cooperation with our European friends.”

‘If Boris Johnson thinks that the ship of state is worth an extra ha’p’orth of tar, he deserves support’