UK PM strikes deal on Brexit

An all-UK customs deal will be written into the Brexit deal so that an Irish backstop is not required.

Theresa May will sell the plan by telling Brexiteer ministers that unless they support it, they will be personally responsible for causing a no-deal Brexit. Picture: AFP

An all-UK Customs deal will be written into the legally binding agreement governing Britain’s withdrawal from the EU so that an Irish backstop, which has been the main stumbling bloc to London and Brussels agreeing a deal, is not required.

That agreement will include an exit clause, which could allow Prime Minister Theresa May to try to win over Brexiteers.

Preparations for a final deal are “far more advanced than previously disclosed” and will lead to a document of 50 pages or more being published — not the vague, five-page plan expected.

Senior sources say Mrs May has secured private concessions from Brussels that will allow her to keep the whole of Britain in a Customs union, avoiding a hard border in Northern Ireland. They expect this to placate remainer Tories and win over some Labour MPs.

In a move that will appeal to eurosceptics, Mrs May is said to be on course to secure a political deal on a future economic partnership (FEP) with the EU that will allow Britain to keep open the prospect of a free-trade deal such as that secured by Canada.

Cabinet sources say parts of it “could have been written by Jacob Rees-Mogg”, the leader of the hardline Eurosceptics.

An aide of EU negotiator Michel Barnier revealed a concession on the Irish border during a meeting in London last week. The EU now accepts that regulatory checks on goods can take place “in the market” by British officials, meaning they can be conducted at factories and shops rather than at the border.

Downing Street officials are desperate to see enough progress this week for the EU to announce a summit later this month to agree on final details. Mrs May will discuss the proposals with her cabinet tomorrow.

Mrs May will sell the plan by telling Brexiteer ministers that unless they support it, they will be personally responsible for causing a no-deal Brexit, which most regard as a potential ­disaster.

The challenge Mrs May faces in winning support for the plan was spelt out in stark terms yesterday by former Brexit secretary David Davis. In an article for The Sunday Times, he calls for the Prime Minister to publish legal advice on any deal so ministers and MPs understand its implications before they are asked to vote on it.

Mr Davis warns Mrs May that she will get in the same “mess” as former Labour prime minister Tony Blair did over the Iraq War unless she is transparent about the legal basis for “one of the most fundamental decisions that a government will have taken in modern times”.

He writes that Mr Blair’s reputation “never recovered” after he refused to publish the legal advice of his attorney-­general, Peter Goldsmith, on Iraq. When it leaked during the 2005 general election campaign, it revealed Lord Goldsmith’s doubts about the legality of war.

Nine cabinet ministers have already told Mrs May they cannot sign up to a deal until ­Attorney-General Geoffrey Cox has given it his backing.

Mr Davis’s successor, ­Dominic Raab, is understood to be bullish about the prospects of getting a deal that will satisfy ­eurosceptics, but Brexiteer cabinet ministers fear they will be bounced into backing Mrs May’s scheme without proper scrutiny.

They worry the exit clause from the Customs union might contain a provision keeping Northern Ireland in closer alignment with Brussels if the rest of Britain left — which would attract the ire of Mrs May’s Democratic Unionist Party backers and make it likely Britain would in effect never leave.

In those circumstances, the political declaration would be meaningless. One cabinet source said: “Effectively, the FEP will be written in disappearing ink, and on March 30 next year it will be a blank sheet of paper.”

The Sunday Times