UK faces ‘unavoidable’ barriers, says Barnier
PM drops in to talks in Downing Street
QUITTING THE customs union will leave Britain facing “unavoidable” barriers to trade, Michel Barnier has warned.
After talks in No 10, the European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator said the UK must provide more clarity on what it wants in the next stage of the process. Downing Street has ruled out remaining in a customs union with the EU after Brexit, and Brexit Secretary David Davis insisted Britain’s position is “perfectly clear”.
But after a three-course lunch of smoked salmon, pork belly and vanilla custard tart, Mr Barnier told the UK the “time has come to make a choice”.
“The conditions are very clear, everyone has to play by the same rules during this transition,” he said. “The certainty about this transition will only come with the ratification of the withdrawal agreement.”
He added: “Our future partnership between the UK and EU, on that point we need also clarity about the UK proposals for future partnership. The only thing I can say, without a customs union and outside the single market, barriers to trade on goods and services are unavoidable. The time has come to make a choice.”
Mr Davis said the UK wanted a comprehensive free trade agreement while still having the opportunity to make deals across the rest of the world.
THE GOVERNMENT has maintained that it is looking to secure a “deep and special partnership” with the European Union despite a stark warning that Brexit will leave an indelible effect on the nation’s trade links with the Continent.
Brexit Secretary David Davis said after talks in Downing Street with Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, that the UK wanted a comprehensive free trade agreement while still having the opportunity to make deals across the rest of the world.
Mr Davis said: “It’s perfectly clear what we want to do. There’s no doubt about it, we are leaving the customs union but we are aiming for a good future for Britain.”
Confirmation of the Government’s approach on the customs union may placate Tory MPs and Ministers who are keen for a Brexit arrangement which allows the UK to strike trade deals around the world – something which a customs union could have prevented.
But business leaders have urged the Government to remain in a customs union, and Tory Brexit rebel Anna Soubry urged Number 10 to “do the maths” and listen to company bosses.
She claimed the “hard Brexit” European Research Group (ERG) of Tory MPs, led by Jacob ReesMogg, had a “deeply unattractive” plan which involved leaving the customs union “to chase unicorn trade deals” at the expense of existing relations with the EU.
The Brexit Secretary said the talks, which Prime Minister Theresa May dropped in on, had been “very constructive” and the next round would focus on the implementation period.
Mrs May is said to have a 20-minute chat with Mr Barnier.
An “intense” period of negotiations will begin straight away and the Government is “confident” of securing an agreement at the next meeting of EU leaders in March, said Mr Davis.
Mrs May’s Brexit “war cabinet” is due to meet tomorrow and Thursday to continue discussions on the “end-state” relationship which the UK will seek with its former EU partners.
The PM’s official spokesman said: “We have said that we want the customs arrangement to be as frictionless as possible and that’s what we will be looking to achieve as part of the deep and special partnership that we are seeking with the EU.
“We want it to be as frictionless as possible and we think we can achieve that because it’s in the interests of the UK and the European Union.
“As with all these matters, it’s the beginning of a negotiation.”
The spokesman said that Mrs May spoke to Mr Barnier for 20 minutes before his lunch with Mr Davis.
“They discussed the fact that they were pleased that they reached agreement in December.
“The Prime Minister thanked Michel Barnier for the role he played in that and they agreed it was in the interests of both our sides to move quickly on the implementation period and to agree a positive future relationship.”
Meanwhile, Labour risks losing a big chunk of its support among younger people unless it adopts an anti-Brexit stance, according to a new poll.
The YouGov survey for new pressure group Our Future Our Choice found that Labour’s poll rating could drop from 39 per cent to 30 per cent if it goes into the next election backing Brexit. The official position of Jeremy Corbyn’s party is that it accepts the result of the 2016 referendum and is seeking a “jobsfirst” Brexit which will preserve the benefits of the single market and customs union.
The new poll found that 73 per cent of Remain voters aged under 40 would back Labour if it opposed Brexit, compared to just 39 per cent if it supports going ahead with EU withdrawal.
THERE ARE times when a Prime Minister simply can’t win – and this appears to be one of them. Those who say Theresa May should be more assertive over Brexit are the self-same politicians, and others, who would be criticising the Tory leader if she tried to circumvent the Cabinet on Britain’s future alignment, or otherwise, with the customs union.
The problem is that this is the country’s biggest political upheaval since it joined the then-EEC and her Government’s very future appears to be increasingly on the line because Mrs May has lost the authority to neutralise the Conservative Party’s rival warring factions who have been at loggerheads over Europe since Margaret Thatcher’s era.
The deeper the divisions, and the longer that they persist as the reputations of civil servants become besmirched, the more diminished Mrs May becomes and unable to negotiate a deal with the European Union that is in Britain’s best interests.
To use EU referendum parlance, she must take back control. And, while the Government has not helped itself with its obfuscation over the release of Brexit policy papers, public disagreements risk more voters coming to the conclusion that the PM is “in office but not in power”, Norman Lamont’s incendiary charge against John Major in the 1990s.
Given that a change of leader would only add to the chaos and confusion, the Tories need to remember that they are still – just – the party of government, and start acting like one.