The Tory civil war on Brexit exploded into public today as Boris Johnson tore into Theresa May’s trade plans.
The Foreign Secretary branded the proposed customs partnership ‘crazy’ and claimed it would create ‘a whole new web of bureaucracy’.
Mr Johnson warned it would not meet the key test of Britain ‘taking back control’, and would restrict our ability to strike trade deals.
The dramatic intervention, in an interview with the Daily Mail, raises the prospect that Mr Johnson could quit if Mrs May does not drop the plan.
It sparked a swift backlash from Tory Remainers, who raged that Mr Johnson’s stance was ‘disgraceful’ and he must ‘wake up to reality’.
Theresa May (pictured arriving at Downing Street with husband Philip this morning) is fighting to save her proposals for a customs partnership with the EU
Boris Johnson arrived for Cabinet today after savaging Theresa May’s post-Brexit trade plans
Amid mounting pressure on Mrs May to find a way through the impasse, leading Tory Eurosceptic Jacob Rees-Mogg also said Britain would be much more ‘aggressive’ in negotiations with Brussels if Mr Johnson was PM.
Brexiteers fear No10 wants to ‘rebadge’ the customs partnership blueprint and force it through despite heavy criticism from a powerful Cabinet subcommittee last week.
But Mrs May has pushed the ‘War Cabinet’ showdown back from this Thursday to next week as she struggles to find a compromise solution.
Under the partnership concept, officials would track shipments into the UK and collect tariffs for Brussels on goods ending up in the EU.
Mr Johnson said this would simply lead to more red tape.
‘It’s totally untried and would make it very, very difficult to do free trade deals,’ he added.
‘If you have the new customs partnership, you have a crazy system whereby you end up collecting the tariffs on behalf of the EU at the UK frontier.
‘If the EU decides to impose punitive tariffs on something the UK wants to bring in cheaply there’s nothing you can do.
‘That’s not taking back control of your trade policy, it’s not taking back control of your laws, it’s not taking back control of your borders and it’s actually not taking back control of your money either, because tariffs would get paid centrally back to Brussels.’
Business Secretary Greg Clark, pictured left in Downing Street today, has been pushing for a softer Brexit. David Davis (right) was also at the Cabinet meeting today – although the future of trade with the EU is not formally on the agenda
Greg Clark, the pro-Remain Business Secretary, insisted on Sunday that the partnership idea was far from dead and warned thousands of car industry jobs could go if Britain did not stay in some form of customs union.
Within minutes of Mr Clark talking up the plan, the pro-EU CBI and the British Chambers of Commerce issued statements backing his position.
But Mr Johnson said: ‘Colleagues in Cabinet have different concerns about different aspects of the argument and it’s entirely right that they should make their points.
‘But we should be looking at the opportunities and thinking confidently about the UK and believing what we can do rather than succumbing to a sort of Project Fear mark 2,3,4,5,6.’
Mr Rees-Mogg raised the temperature further by suggesting Mr Johnson would take a ‘more aggressive’ approach to Brexit if he became PM.
Leading Tory Eurosceptic Jacob Rees-Mogg (pictured with some of his children at a fair in his East Somerset constituency yesterday) said Britain would be much more ‘aggressive’ in negotiations with Brussels if Mr Johnson was PM
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom strolled up Downing Street in the sunshine today
‘The EU knows if they don’t support and help Theresa May to get a deal, there is the risk of having somebody much, much more aggressive, which they don’t want,’ Rees-Mogg told the Telegraph. ‘
I think that’s helping her. By being a Remainer, by being moderate, by being courteous, she is doing a highly competent job in negotiations. I don’t think they would like to have Boris Johnson, do you? That’s a strength of her position. Banging the table doesn’t always get results.’
Fellow Brexiteer Bernard Jenkin said the partnership idea amounted to ‘self-deception’.
‘I think the Prime Minister is very anxious to try to bring the whole party together around some kind of compromise proposal and the argument is going on about this. I think in the end she will have to drop it because it will prove unworkable,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
‘I think it is a bit of an act of self-deception to say that we are leaving the customs union but we are still going to apply the common external tariff to all the imports coming in from the EU.’
But Tory former minister Baroness Altmann said the intervention by Mr Johnson was ‘disgraceful’ and the UK needed to ‘wake up to reality’.
‘We need to stay in CU and EEA to ensure future success,’ she wrote on Twitter.
Mr Johnson made his comments in an interview with the Daily Mail during a two-day visit to Washington DC.
He hailed the ‘massive opportunity’ of a US trade deal and said a ‘rich and deep’ agreement could be reached only after a clean break from the EU.
‘You can’t do that if you remain locked in the lunar pull of Brussels, the tractor beam of Brussels,’ he said.
‘There’s a discussion going on, and we haven’t resolved this, but some of the ideas would make it very difficult for us to do meaningful free trade deals.’
On Northern Ireland he said that if Britain chose to change its laws on imported goods or foods – as is often required under trade deals – that would inevitably mean checks at the border.
‘It only solves the Northern Ireland border question if you force companies to prove that an imported tariff-reduced good has been consumed in the UK and if you insist on complete regulatory alignment with the EU rule book,’ he said.
‘Otherwise if Britain chose to vary its laws in any way at all on goods and agrifood, then logically you would need checks at the border.’
The Foreign Secretary warned against being locked into the EU’s structures: ‘That’s not what the Americans want to see, what they want to see, like all our friends, is a confident free-trading Britain able to do its own deals.’
A senior White House source said last night that Donald Trump was determined to do a ‘great’ trade deal with Britain.
The source also said the US President was looking forward to coming to the UK in July but signalled some nervousness about possible protests.
‘The President is keen for Britain to get out of the EU so we can get on with doing a great trade deal. He’s surprised it’s taking so long,’ the source said.
‘He is looking forward to coming over and he wants people to be positive about that.’
Mr Johnson warned that opponents of Mr Trump’s visit risked damaging the economy.
‘Overwhelmingly the people of the United Kingdom will want to hear from the President of the United States,’ he said.
‘America is our number one export market. Trade with America is worth $100billion a year.
‘There are a million people in the US employed in British firms just as there are a million people in the UK employed in American firms.’
In January Mr Trump repeated his determination to secure a US–UK trade deal, saying: ‘As you know you are somewhat restricted because of Brexit, but when that restriction is up we’re going to be your great trading partner.’
Mr Johnson has made a series of pointed and carefully-timed interventions in the Brexit debate since entering government, often to the dismay of Downing Street.
In September last year – before a major speech by Theresa May in Florence – he wrote a 4,000-word ‘Brexit manifesto’ that prompted accusations of backseat driving.
What are the options on the table for a customs deal with the EU?
With time ticking away on the Brexit negotiations, the Cabinet is still at daggers drawn on the shape for future trade relations with the EU.
The government has set out two potential options for a customs system after the UK leaves the bloc.
But despite a series of tense showdowns at Theresa May’s Brexit ‘War Cabinet’ ministers continue to be deadlocked over what to do.
Meanwhile, Brussels has dismissed both the ideas – and warned that negotiations could stall altogether unless there is progress by a key summit next month.
Despite a series of tense showdowns at Theresa May’s ‘War Cabinet’ (pictured in February) ministers continue to be deadlocked over what to do
OPTION 1 – CUSTOMS PARTNERSHIP
Under the so-called ‘hybrid model’, the UK would collect EU import tariffs on behalf of Brussels.
Britain would be responsible for tracking the origin and final destination of goods coming into the country from outside the EU. The government would also have to ensure all products meet the bloc’s standards.
Firms selling directly into the UK market would pay the tariff levels set by Brussels – but would then get a rebate if Britain’s tariffs are lower.
Supporters of the hybrid plan in Cabinet – including Theresa May, Philip Hammond and Greg Clark – say keeping duties aligned up front would avoid the need for physical customs borders between the UK and EU.
As a result it could solve the thorny issue over creating a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.
Mrs May has been advised by the chief whip that the hybrid option could be the only way of securing a majority in parliament for a Brexit deal.
But Brexiteers regard the proposal as unworkable and cumbersome – and they were joined by Sajid Javid and Gavin Williamson in criticising it at a tense ‘War Cabinet’ meeting last week.
There are fears the experimental system will either collapse and cause chaos, or prevent the UK from being able to negotiate free trade deals around the world after Brexit.
Mrs May has instructed official to go away and revise the ideas. Eurosceptics are braced for her to bring back the plan with only ‘cosmetic’ changes, and try to ‘peel off’ Mr Javid and Mr Williamson from the core group of Brexiteers.
They are also ready for Mrs May to attempt to bypass the ‘War Cabinet’ altogether and put the issue before the whole Cabinet – where she has more allies.
OPTION 2 – MAXIMUM FACILITATION
Boris Johnson (left) and Liam Fox have been pushing for the ‘Max Fac’ customs option
The ‘Max Fac’ option accepts that there will be greater friction at Britain’s borders with the EU.
But it would aim to minimise the issues using technology and mutual recognition.
Goods could be electronically tracked and pre-cleared by tax authorities on each side.
Shipping firms could also be given ‘trusted trader’ status so they can move goods freely, and only pay tariffs when they are delivered to the destination country.
Companies would also be trusted to ensure they were meeting the relevant UK and EU standards on products.
Senior ministers such as Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Liam Fox believe this is the only workable option.
But Remain minded Tories such as Mr Clark insist it will harm trade and cost jobs in the UK.
They also warn that it will require more physical infrastructure on the Irish border – potentially breaching the Good Friday Agreement. It is far from clear whether the government would be able to force anything through parliament that implied a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.
The EU has dismissed the idea that ‘Max Fac’ could prevent checks on the Irish border as ‘magical thinking’.
Brussels can’t bear to see us succeed: Commentary by Iain Duncan Smith
Business Secretary Greg Clark, who told the BBC that the customs partnership remained on the table
At the EU referendum almost two years ago, the British people heroically saw through Project Fear.
In their determination to embrace national independence, they refused to be intimidated by the deceitful scaremongering about our supposedly apocalyptic future after Brexit.
Yet the Establishment has never accepted the democratic verdict of the electorate.
Unable to imagine life without the EU’s rule, devoid of any real faith in Britain’s capabilities, key elements of the political class have embarked on a systematic campaign to obstruct and emasculate Brexit.
That relentless hostility shone through most recently in debates in the House of Lords, where unelected, unaccountable peers lined up to sneer at the public’s wish for national freedom.
Too much of this spirit of fearfulness and surrender has infused our side in the negotiations with the EU over withdrawal, leading to a catalogue of concessions in return for little.
In the same vein, the Civil Service, those past masters at delay, keep pushing for an ever longer transition period in the hope that institutional inertia may ultimately thwart Britain’s departure.
Now the Establishment is refusing to let go of its new weapon: the customs union.
Over the weekend, Business Secretary Greg Clark told the BBC that the Theresa May’s proposed new customs partnership – a fudged version of the customs union that was rejected by her Brexit cabinet only last week – remained on the table.
An arrangement of this kind is necessary, he declared, otherwise the British economy will suffer and trade will shrink.
Gazing into his crystal ball, Clark specifically warned that 3,500 car jobs at Toyota could be at risk without the customs deal.
Whether intentional or not, these comments echo the same old soundtrack of alarm that always accompanies calls for submission to Brussels.
But Project Fear did not work in 2016 and it will not work now.
That is partly because, as has been well-rehearsed in recent days, the new customs partnership would create a bureaucratic nightmare, hurt our economic prospects, hit our global trade and undermine our democracy.
The jewel in the crown of Brexit will be the ability to reach our own trade deals around the world, particularly with the fast developing nations of Asia – something that Brussels simply cannot stomach.
In their efforts to hype concerns about Brexit and be as obstructive as possible, EU officials, Dublin and the pro-EU brigade here talk endlessly about the difficulty of the Irish border.
In reality, the ‘Irish question’ has been cynically seized upon and ‘weaponised’ by fearmongering Remainers who hope to cajole us into staying put.
No one actually wants a hard border.
As John Thompson, the head of the HMRC, has made clear, with goodwill and imagination, the problem is easily resolvable, especially since Britain and Ireland have operated a common travel area since 1923.
Indeed, the whole question of a customs arrangement with the EU has been grossly exaggerated by the Remain lobby.
Only about 12 per cent of Britain’s GDP involves exports to the EU, while just 8 per cent of British companies trade with EU.
Most of our economy is based on the domestic market, which suffers from Brussels’ protectionist policies that push up prices and increase burdens on businesses.
Freed from the dead hand of Brussels, consumer costs – especially of food – will fall and enterprise will flourish.
It is absurd to cling to the idea, eagerly peddled by the anti-Brexiteers, that the EU is some kind of engine of economic growth.
Just the opposite is true. EU officialdom is the enemy of jobs and innovation, as is reflected in its cripplingly high rates of unemployment, especially among young people, in EU countries like Spain and Greece.
And EU-led stagnation is bound to worsen in the coming years, as Brussels presses ahead with its cherished ideological project of further political integration.
That will mean more taxation in the name of harmonisation, more regulation, more centralised governance, more streams of directives.
Britain will have to be part of that if we end up in a customs union.
Brexit gives us the chance to break free from the continuing destruction of our sovereignty. That is what the British public recognised in 2016.
Tragically, however, the Establishment, reflected in its doom-mongering asides, remains mired in timid defeatism, reluctant either to challenge the EU or contemplate change.