May Mulls Customs Arrangement Plan to Keep Brexit Deal Alive
May Weighs Up Customs Arrangement Plan to Keep Brexit Deal Alive
(Bloomberg) -- Theresa May is weighing up plans to win the support of opposition Labour politicians for her Brexit deal, including potentially a much tighter customs relationship with the European Union, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The prime minister could set out her proposals in a speech later this week, although none of the plans have been finalized.
Officials have been drafting a new law to provide for a customs-union style arrangement with the EU to guarantee there is no need for checks on goods crossing the U.K.’s border.
The idea is designed to appeal to the Labour Party, which is calling for full permanent membership of a customs union with the EU, in an effort to break the deadlock in Parliament that has held up Britain’s divorce from the bloc. May has promised to put a date on the end of her premiership but first she plans to have one more go at getting her deal ratified.
Despite the breakdown in cross-party negotiations between the government and the Labour opposition last week, May’s team are still considering whether to press ahead with the customs arrangement plan when they put the Withdrawal Agreement Bill to a vote next month, the person said.
“We are discussing still amongst ourselves and with the opposition parties what people would want to see in the bill,” International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said in a Bloomberg TV interview on Monday.
But the approach is a risky one for May as it could trigger resignations from her Cabinet. The premier has promised to take Britain out of the EU’s customs union in order to be free to strike trade deals with other countries around the world.
Pro-Brexit ministers and those with ambitions for the party leadership would be the most likely to quit if she abandoned this red line.
May will convene a meeting of her Cabinet on Tuesday to consider how to respond to the collapse of the cross-party talks with Labour.
Another option would be to hold a set of so-called indicative votes in the House of Commons, asking members of Parliament to choose between a range of Plan B options. But there would be little point in pursuing this idea if Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn didn’t promise to abide by the results.
May has said she will put the Withdrawal Agreement Bill -- which enshrines the Brexit divorce deal into law -- to a vote in Parliament in the week of June 3. Among other measures, it’s likely to include beefed up protections for workers’ rights, which has also been a key demand of the Labour Party.
--With assistance from Guy Johnson and Alex Morales.
To contact the reporter on this story: Tim Ross in London at tross54@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson at fjackson@bloomberg.net, Emma Ross-Thomas
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