Threats ‘will not intimidate ministers over Brexit’ – Rudd
HOME Secretary Amber Rudd has said ministers will not be intimidated by threats from Tory Brexiteers amid fresh warnings of a leadership challenge if Theresa May fails to deliver a “clean Brexit”.
As senior ministers prepared to discuss Britain’s future relationship with the EU, Ms Rudd insisted there was greater unity around the Cabinet table than many MPs realised.
She expressed confidence Mrs May’s Brexit “war cabinet” would be able to come up with a plan that commanded broad support when it meets on Wednesday and then again on Thursday.
Her comments came amid warnings from senior Tory Eurosceptics that any deal with Brussels which keeps Britain in a customs union with the EU would be unacceptable.
The Sunday Times reported some MPs wanted to replace her with a Brexiteer “dream team” with Boris Johnson as Prime Minister, Michael Gove his deputy and Jacob ReesMogg the backbenchers’ “shop steward” if there was any backsliding by ministers.
Ms Rudd, who sits on the 10-strong Brexit Cabinet sub-committee, insisted that the Government was committed to leaving the Customs Union – along with the Single Market – when the UK withdraws from the EU in March 2019.
However, she reaffirmed they would be seeking to negotiate a customs “arrangement” or “partnership” with the EU – as set out in a position paper last year – to ensure trade with the bloc remains as “frictionless” as possible.
Some Eurosceptics, however, remain deeply suspicious, fearing ministers like Chancellor Philip Hammond – who suggested Britain’s relationship with the EU would only change “very modestly” – want to keep Britain in the EU in all but name.
Senior backbencher Bernard Jenkin accused Mr Hammond of pursuing a different policy to the Prime Minister, and warned that her position would be in jeopardy unless there was “clean Brexit”.
“She can only command a majority in Parliament on her present policy,” he wrote in an article for The Sunday Telegraph.
However, appearing on BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show, Ms Rudd said ministers would not be intimidated by such threats.
“I have a surprise for the Brexiteers, which is the committee that meets in order to help make these decisions is more united than they think,” she said.
“We meet in the committee. We meet privately for discussions,” she went on.
“I think that we will arrive at something which suits us all.
“There will be choices to be made within that, but we all want the same thing, which is to arrive at a deal which works for the UK.”
Nevertheless, the meetings on Wednesday and Thursday are potentially explosive.
Mrs May found it hard enough to forge an agreement among her warring ministers on a post-Brexit transition deal, and finding consensus on Britain’s future relationship with the EU is likely to prove far more complicated.
The Prime Minister has previously avoided a full-blown discussion in the Brexit sub-committee on the issue because of the sensitivities involved.
Broadly, ministers are divided among those such as Mr Hammond,