Has Steve Baker accidentally spilled the beans? He suggests that powerful forces are at work in government (HERE) trying to keep us in the single market and he gives three possible reasons, one of which is the "guarantees" given to the car industry. Nobody outside of government knows what comfort Nissan got from Greg Clark back in October 2016 (HERE) but I'm pretty sure it was the assurance of "frictionless" trade by one means or another.
Baker, the former DEXEU minister who resigned in a strop last July alongside Davis, speaking in a video message covered by The Daily Mirror was talking about what he sees as a secret plot to preserve vital parts of the economy like farming or car manufacturing, from the threat of the diamond hard Brexit he prefers. He is like a fifth columnist complaining his work is being thwarted. He says there are three possible reasons why they want to keep us in the single market:
"That might be because they are badly advised about the cost of customs and the potential for new non-tariff barriers.
"That might be because they are badly advised about the cost of customs and the potential for new non-tariff barriers.
"It might be because they do not want to leave the European Union and wish to create the conditions to rejoin it later, with all that would mean, no rebate, adopting the euro and so on.
"It might be because of secret guarantees wrongly given to the car industry that nothing would change as we left the EU."
Business Secretary Greg Clark made a series of promises to car giants including Nissan after they raised concerns about the impact of Brexit on their factories and supply chains. Baker thinks they were "wrongly" given. In other words they should just pack up and go.
Like the fearless and well insulated Brexiteer he is, those plotting against Brexit are "badly advised", advice being something the average Brexiteer doesn't need. Well you don't do you, when you have faith? And of course, assurances given by a minister of the crown to the owner of the UK's largest ever car factory directly employing 8,000 people are not to be taken seriously.
I suspect he knows more than he lets on. Greg Clark almost certainly gave some kind of assurance to Nissan and it almost certainly is one of the reasons Theresa May is trying desperately to keep us in the single market for goods, in what Baker this morning on Radio 4 called a half in, half out solution. It's clear he would like an all out solution. I do hope workers in Sunderland and the West Midlands were listening.
It exposes the blind faith Baker has in Brexit. The loss of car manufacturing would be a blow to this country not just from the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs and the impact on areas like the North East but also on our exports and the balance of trade.
Baker also dismisses the Irish border problem:
"That's why it's time to accept practical arrangements on the Irish border for the important but small proportion of trade which is north-south and to make an advanced free-trade agreement work for the whole UK. The alternative is to have practical arrangements in Ireland with no deal."
By "practical arrangements" I assume he means the army, pillboxes, razor wire and check points all the way along the 300 mile border. What a dangerous man he is.
