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Courtesy of the Sunday Times.
Theresa May today seeks to break the deadlock in her warring cabinet and party over their differences on Brexit by declaring “trust me to deliver” and vowing: “I will not let you down.” Writing for The Sunday Times, the prime minister adopts the language of the Brexiteers as she promises to “take back control” of Britain’s borders, money and laws, but says: “There will have to be compromises.” Her intervention comes after tensions in the cabinet exploded into the open last week as Boris Johnson launched an attack on the prime minister’s preferred option for a post-Brexit EU customs partnership. The foreign secretary dismissed the proposal as “crazy”, saying it would deny Britain control of trade policy.
Johnson and David Davis, the Brexit secretary, favour “maximum facilitation”, which would let technology help so-called trusted traders cross the Northern Ireland and other EU borders freely.
Neither side is willing to compromise, which means the stakes are high for the prime minister, who has divided her cabinet into two rival camps to fight out their differences before the Brexit “war cabinet” meets on Tuesday. Davis is said to be prepared to quit if May’s customs partnership model is adopted, with one aide admitting: “If it doesn’t go his way then all bets are off.” The prime minister has also been warned she could face a leadership challenge.
Her article today is an appeal for unity as she enters another perilous phase of her premiership.
“The path I am setting out is the path to deliver the Brexit people voted for,” she writes. “Of course, the details are incredibly complex and, as in any negotiation, there will have to be compromises. But if we stick to the task we will seize this once in a generation opportunity to build a stronger, fairer Britain that is respected around the world and confident and united at home. I will need your help and support to get there. And in return, my pledge to you is simple: I will not let you down.” With a decision on the trading relationship with the EU expected within days, the pro-Brexit campaign group Leave Means Leave today heaps further pressure on May to abandon the customs partnership model and adopt a technological solution to the Irish border question.
In a report co-authored by John Longworth, the former director of the British Chambers of Commerce, and the Conservative MEP David Campbell Bannerman, the group argues that existing technology is “more than capable of permitting a friction-free border”. The report found that Ireland conducted the lowest level of physical inspections in the world — just 1% — and that 95-99% of goods traded between developed countries avoid physical inspection. It draws on the Svinesund crossing on the Norway-Sweden border, where cameras with numberplate recognition track vehicles. A mobile customs unit checks anything suspicious.