UK Edition
Britain is coming to the crunch. Two years on from the referendum, our future trading relationship with the EU has yet to be settled: in the Customs Union or out? Theresa May brought a proposal for a customs partnership to the Cabinet’s Brexit sub-committee and was defeated. Rightly so. A fudge is unacceptable not only to Leavers but the EU as well, and it would reflect the painful inability of some in the Government either to acknowledge the total implications of Brexit or what is necessary to accomplish it in full. Brexit has always meant leaving the Customs Union.
Parliament’s Remainer coalition understands this, which is why it is agitating to stay inside it. They are gambling that if Britain remains tethered to EU regulations while surrendering influence over how they are written, then MPs will look at the final deal, judge it isn’t a good one and give the voters a second referendum – and the voters might decide leaving the EU is a mistake after all. Remain’s long-game is sneaky, but they deserve credit for having identified in advance the issues that would pose the greatest political difficulty, namely trade and the Irish border. Now they claim that they have the numbers in Parliament to force what they call a “soft Brexit”.
Beating them will not just be a matter for the whips: Brexiteers will only win the argument if they actually make one. Some are doing that, for sure, but it is not enough for backbench MPs to talk about, say, new border technologies. It’s time for the Government itself to explain with conviction why Britain has to leave the Customs Union (rather than constantly reasserting that it must), and what the material benefits will be. It also needs to identify the necessary technology and put it in place. The Government has given the impression of rhetorically endorsing a Customs Union exit without doing anything to effect it.
Fundamentally, the red line for any future relationship with the EU is that it guarantees the right of Britain to pursue an independent trading policy. Neither a customs partnership or sticking to the Customs Union would achieve this, therefore the Government must mobilise against them. But it must also explain its reasoning – and thus turn the tables on the Remainers. What do they want? To chain Britain to the EU in perpetuity? To overturn the referendum result? Neither would be very popular with the voters.
Message to the Government: Brexit means leaving the Customs Union