Brexit Secretary accuses Carwyn of ‘foolish mistake’
CARWYN Jones is making a “foolish mistake” if he believes Wales can remain part of the European single market and customs union following Britain’s withdrawal from the EU, according to Brexit Secretary David Davis.
In a bullish response to an urgent question in the House of Commons yesterday, Mr Davis said the idea of leaving the European Union but allowing individual nations to be “left behind” was “emphatically not something that the UK Government is considering”.
Mr Davis added: “So when the First Minister of Wales complains about it, or the First Minister of Scotland says it’s a reason to start banging the tattered drum of independence, or the Mayor of London says it justifies a hard border around the M25, I say they’re making a foolish mistake.
“No UK Government would allow such a thing, let alone a Conservative and Unionist one.”
Mrs May’s crunch withdrawal talks with the EU in Brussels on Monday ended without agreement after the DUP refused to accept proposals which
would have shifted Northern Ireland’s customs border to the Irish Sea in order to maintain a soft border with the Republic of Ireland.
She is now facing internal demands not to cut separate deals for different parts of the UK after the leaders of Scotland, Wales and London called for carve-outs to remain in the single market and customs union.
Instead Mr Davis suggested the whole of the UK could align its regulations in certain areas with the EU following Brexit.
Mr Davis was speaking as Prime Minister Theresa May engaged in an intensive effort to restore momentum to Brexit talks which had broken up in disarray on Monday.
A spokesman for First Minister Carwyn Jones said: “The UK Government handling of and briefing around the supposed deal yesterday was staggeringly incompetent. Having gotten it so badly wrong themselves, it’s amazing that they have deliberately chosen to misrepresent others in their response today.”
Irish premier Leo Varadkar said that “the ball is now in London’s court” after Mrs May pulled out of a proposed deal when the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) made clear it would not accept proposals for “regulatory alignment” with the Republic.
In a scathing assessment of the turmoil surrounding the talks, Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer said that the “DUP tail is wagging the Conservative dog”.
He urged Mrs May to “rethink her reckless red lines” and put the option back on the table of the UK remaining within the European single market and customs union.
Mrs May was expected to speak to DUP leader Arlene Foster and Sinn Fein’s Michelle O’Neill last night and is due to visit Brussels again later this week to try to finalise a divorce deal which would allow leaders of the 27 remaining EU states to give the green light to trade talks next week.
But Downing Street suggested that negotiations could go right up to the wire at the leaders’ summit in the Belgian capital on December 14.
In a statement to the House of Commons, Mr Davis said the UK was now “close” to concluding the first phase of Brexit negotiations, dealing with the Irish border, citizens’ rights and the UK’s financial settlement.
He insisted the Government would not accept any deal which saw Northern Ireland treated differently from the rest of the UK as the price of keeping an open border with the Republic.
But he side-stepped a demand from prominent Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg to make it an “indelible red line” that the UK should be able to diverge from EU rules and regulations after withdrawal, telling him only: “The red line for me is delivering the best Brexit for Britain.”
Mr Davis stressed that “alignment” did not mean full harmonisation with EU regulations, telling MPs: “It’s sometimes having mutually recognised rules, mutually recognised inspection, all of that sort of thing as well – and that’s what we are aiming at.”
He added: “There are areas where we want the same outcome but by different regulatory methods. We want to maintain safety, we want to maintain food standards, we want to maintain animal welfare, we want to maintain employment rights.
“We don’t have to do that by exactly the same mechanism as everybody else. That’s what regulatory alignment means.”
But Sir Keir told the Commons: “The question for the Government today is this: Will the Prime Minister now rethink her reckless red lines and put options such as a customs union and single market back on the table for negotiation?
“Because if the price of the Prime Minister’s approach is the break-up of
the union and reopening of bitter divides in Northern Ireland then the price is too high.”
DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds revealed the party was not shown the draft text of the proposed agreement on the Irish border until the “late morning” on Monday, shortly before Mrs May was expected to sign off on it in a lunchtime meeting with European Commission president JeanClaude Juncker.
He said they immediately informed the Government that it was “clearly unacceptable”, forcing Mrs May to break off her lunch for emergency phone talks with Mrs Foster.
“The Prime Minister has said that there will be no border in the Irish Sea, she has made it clear that the UK is leaving the European Union as a whole and that the territorial and economic integrity of the United Kingdom will be protected,” said Mr Dodds. “So we want to see a sensible Brexit and we will continue to work through the detail of all these issues with the Government today and in the coming days.”
Speaking in Westminster, Mr Dodds accused the Republic of “flexing their muscles” by seeking to use its veto over the Brexit process in a “reckless and dangerous way” which was putting Anglo-Irish relations at risk.
But in a pointed rebuff to the DUP, Mr Varadkar said that he would listen to “all political parties in Northern Ireland and recognise that the majority did not vote to leave the European Union”.
The Taoiseach said he accepted Mrs May and her team were negotiating “in good faith”, telling the Dail he was “looking forward to hearing from them as to how they think we can proceed”.
But in a clear sign he believes it is for Britain to make further concessions, he added: “The ball is now in London’s court.”
Mr Varadkar’s deputy Simon Coveney said Dublin was ready to work with the UK on “presentational issues” but insisted it would not budge on the issues, saying: “We don’t want to give the impression that the Irish Government is going to reverse away from the deal we felt we had in place and agreed yesterday.”
Meeting Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in Downing Street, Mrs May said: “Our talks with the European Union have made a lot of progress. There are still a couple of issues we need to work on but we’ll be reconvening in Brussels later this week as we look ahead to the December European Council.
“But I know in everything we do we want to ensure, particularly, that we recognise the needs of Spanish citizens here in the UK, and UK citizens living in Spain.”
Mr Rajoy said the Prime Minister, who briefed Cabinet colleagues on Tuesday, was doing a “sterling job, fantastic job”.
Meanwhile, Mrs May came under pressure from Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson, who said in a tweet that no Tory Government should “countenance any deal that compromises the political, economic or constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom”.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon called on Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to “get his act together” and unite with Remain-backing Tories to “force a different, less damaging Brexit leaving the UK in the single market and customs union”.