Prime Minister backs down on customs backstop deadline to keep Brexit secretary David Davis from resigning
David Davis has backed down from his threats to resign after the Prime Minister added a date to the Brexit backstop proposal.
According to the document published this afternoon, the government is proposing a UK-wide temporary customs arrangement with the EU in which the two sides will continue to trade on the same basis as present, with the UK being able to strike free trade agreements with new global partners.
The wording of today's six-page proposal is somewhat open-ended. On the backstop, it says:
The UK is clear that the temporary customs arrangement, should it be needed, should be time limited, and that it will be only in place until the future customs arrangement can be introduced. The UK is clear that the future customs arrangement needs to deliver on the commitments made in relation to Northern Ireland. The UK expects the future arrangement to be in place by the end of December 2021 at the latest. There are a range of options for how a time limit could be delivered, which the UK will propose and discuss with the EU.
One pro-Leave source told Morning Wire the conditional phrases meant it was "meaningless" and there was "no legal compulsion".
But the source stressed this was how the Brexit process as a whole would run. "We'll get through this with a tonne of fudge," he said.
Certainly, the Prime Minister has gone far enough to prevent Davis from quitting. A government spokesperson this morning said "of course" she was confident Davis would still be in post by the end of the day.
And his chief of staff Stewart Jackson tweeted: "Helpful dialogue. The backstop paper has been clarified and amended and now expresses, in much more detail, the time limited nature of our proposal – something the PM and DD have always been committed to."
The DUP has also backed it, saying the proposal does not breach the party's red lines over a border in the Irish Sea.
Brussels will now scrutinise the document ahead of it being presented to the European Council towards the end of the month.
Michel Barnier, chief EU negotiator, tweeted: "I welcome publication of the UK's proposal on customs aspects of Irish/Northern Irish backstop.
"We will examine it with three questions: is it a workable solution to avoid a hard border? Does it respect the integrity of the Single Market and customs union? Is it an all-weather backstop?"
Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament's chief coordinator, was less equivocal. "Difficult to see how UK proposal on customs aspects of IE/NI backstop will deliver a workable solution to avoid a hard border & respect integrity of the SM/CU," he tweeted. "A backstop that is temporary is not a backstop, unless the definitive arrangement is the same as the backstop."
It was equally unpopular in Westminster. One Tory MP slammed the move as "a clear compromise to keep David from resigning", adding: "It does undermine Theresa May hugely" in terms of the ongoing negotiations with Brussels.
Labour MP Chris Leslie, who campaigns for Open Britain, said: “This would be laughable if it weren’t so serious. After weeks of the government negotiating with itself, the fudged document they have produced doesn't engage with any of the key Brexit dilemmas and is highly unlikely to lead to anything but more gridlock in the ongoing talks with the EU.
“The new proposal suggests a time-limit, which has already been categorically rejected by the EU, and admits openly that it doesn't even bother dealing with regulatory standards, which means it wouldn't prevent a return to a hard border in Northern Ireland anyway."
Frances O'Grady, general secretary of the TUC, added: "Another Cabinet squabble, another meaningless proposal. This government is wasting people's time."
But it is not just Davis with whom the Prime Minister had to strike a compromise. May also met with foreign secretary Boris Johnson and international trade secretary Liam Fox this morning.
A government source said: "They all signed up to the backstop in December. The problem is they're now realising the backstop is actually here, and fast becoming the frontstop".
At least part of the division between the two is viewed as being caused by May's reliance on Olly Robbins, Davis' former permanent secretary until a falling out last autumn saw Robbins move from the Brexit department to Number 10.
Robbins is still negotiating on behalf of the UK, and his view on Brexit is at odds with many Cabinet ministers, favouring a closer relationship with fewer changes to the status quo.
It is not only Davis who has a problem with Robbins. Ministers including Johnson, Fox and environment secretary Michael Gove have repeatedly pushed against his Remain-leaning approach, which has also angered the pro-Brexit European Research Group led by Jacob Rees-Mogg.