The cabinet seem to working up to a revolt according to The Sunday Times (HERE) where a Tim Shipman article has the title: Key ministers warn Theresa May against ‘EU colony’ status. She has apparently been told her tactics risk destroying the government (we can but hope). Shipman claims, "at least five cabinet ministers have privately warned Theresa May in the past week not to sign up to a Brexit plan they fear will leave Britain in perpetual “colony” status with the EU".
These are Dominic Raab, Jeremy Hunt, Sajid Javid, Michael Gove and Geoffrey Cox, the Attorney-General, who have all told May that she risks the government collapsing if she signs up to a customs union with Brussels, "unless there is a break clause that allows the UK to leave at a time of its choosing".
These are Dominic Raab, Jeremy Hunt, Sajid Javid, Michael Gove and Geoffrey Cox, the Attorney-General, who have all told May that she risks the government collapsing if she signs up to a customs union with Brussels, "unless there is a break clause that allows the UK to leave at a time of its choosing".
I really can't see the EU allowing us to join "a" or "the" customs union temporarily, with Britain then able to opt out whenever it likes. It would throw trade into chaos and I'm surprised ministers even think it's a possibility. Moreover, it's a concession to us to help avoid the need for the Irish backstop not something the EU are forcing on us. The DUP have rejected the EU's backstop plan and now half her cabinet are rejecting an alternative idea. There are far more negotiations being held in London than in Brussels.
Some ministers are apparently also calling for a £1bn investment in Britain’s ports so the UK can diversify away from the main Dover-Calais trade route and boost trade with Rotterdam and Ostend - as if Rotterdam and Ostend are somehow not in the EU and have oodles of spare, suitable Ro-Ro capacity that we can just tap into as we like. And of course, assuming we can plan, design and build all of the infrastructure before next March - just in case the French are awkward as Raab warned last week. Delusional or what?
And in a continuation of the farce, Shipman says:
"May abandoned a meeting of her inner Brexit cabinet on Thursday after realising that her most senior ministers are against her. They were incensed by an apparently co-ordinated effort by remainers at Tuesday’s full cabinet to build a case for them to accept almost any deal with Brussels to avoid disruption.
"In a continuation of what the Brexiteers see as “Project Fear” by May’s team, The Sunday Times has been told that, even if no-deal plans are put in place, only six weeks of medicines could be stockpiled by the NHS, making Britain vulnerable to shortages of medicines.
"But one rebel MP said: “Last weekend was the start of a period of instability. The prime minister is pushing the party into the worst of all worlds with a dystopian no-deal on one side and a deal about as suboptimal as it is possible to get on the other. The cabinet needs to stop this.”
The Irish backstop is becoming ever more critical. Cabinet Brexiteers have no solution of their own and simply reject every option that others come up with. They seem to be unwittingly steering the PM towards the "dystopian no-deal" they say they don't want, by pushing her to ditch or ignore the Irish backstop without which there will be no deal and no transition period.
We can't even be sure that with the clock ticking down the Brexiteers in the cabinet will hear the increasingly panicked screams of the passengers on HMS Brexit as we head towards certain disaster.
The Irish backstop is becoming ever more critical. Cabinet Brexiteers have no solution of their own and simply reject every option that others come up with. They seem to be unwittingly steering the PM towards the "dystopian no-deal" they say they don't want, by pushing her to ditch or ignore the Irish backstop without which there will be no deal and no transition period.
We can't even be sure that with the clock ticking down the Brexiteers in the cabinet will hear the increasingly panicked screams of the passengers on HMS Brexit as we head towards certain disaster.
