Chancellor in business pledge as Tory row boils over
Ministers at odds ahead of crunch Cabinet summit
We have to make sure we deliver a Brexit that delivers for business. Chancellor Philip Hammond.
THE CHANCELLOR has rebuked Boris Johnson and insisted the Government must deliver a Brexit that works for businesses as Tory tensions over EU withdrawal boiled over in a crunch week for Theresa May.
Philip Hammond’s comments will be seen as a rebuke to the Foreign Secretary, who reportedly said “f*** business” when asked about firms’ fears over the potential impact of Brexit.
It comes with Tory infighting intensifying ahead of a crucial summit of the Cabinet at Chequers on Friday, at which the Prime Minister is hoping to get backing for her position on key areas of the trade and customs deal she will seek with Brussels.
Business leaders have urged the PM to drop the “max fac” customs model favoured by Brexiteers like Mr Johnson, with just 24 per cent backing it in a survey of 800 bosses by the Institute of Directors (IoD).
Mrs May was thought to favour a “new customs partnership” which would involve the UK effectively collecting tariffs for the EU for goods destined for the bloc and has been heavily criticised by Brexiteers.
A new “third way” compromise is reportedly under consideration but details are vague.
The IoD found that 54 per cent of firms want Ministers to propose “unprecedented options” that could negate the need for new customs processes even if their introduction takes longer.
The Chancellor told the Commons: “We have to listen to what business is telling us and make sure that we deliver a Brexit which delivers the needs of business.”
Away from the Cabinet, influential hard Brexiteer backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg was accused of plotting a “coup” to oust the PM, amid suggestions she is leaning towards a softer Brexit favoured by the likes of Mr Hammond.
Former Justice Minister Phillip Lee, who resigned from the Government over Brexit, said there was “no doubt” that Eurosceptics were mobilising and called on colleagues to “stand against this nonsense”.
Meanwhile, European leaders stepped up pressure on Mrs May to provide answers on her Brexit plans as she prepared for Friday’s Chequers showdown with her Cabinet.
The Prime Minister was told by Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte to provide clarity on “every aspect” of the UK’s future relationship with the EU, while European Council president Donald Tusk called for “realism” if a Brexit deal is to be reached this year.
Ill-feeling within the Tory party has focused on the role played by Mr Rees-Mogg, leader of the pro-Brexit European Research Group of MPs, who met last night.
In a fresh warning yesterday, he said MPs would not vote for a Brexit deal which failed to meet Mrs May’s stated red lines of leaving the single market, customs union and jurisdiction of the European courts.
Writing in The Daily Telegraph, former Tory leader Lord Hague said any Minister who chose the Chequers summit as the moment to resign would show they were not fit to hold high office in the first place.
Amid reports of Ministers preparing possible leadership challenges, he warned that the “vast sensible middle” of the Conservative Party “deeply dislike naked manoeuvring to become the next leader”.
He said: “Flouncing out, just when the going gets tough but when the EU Withdrawal Act has been successfully enacted, will look like evading responsibility for choices that were inevitable just when important progress has been made.”