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BRITAIN-EU-BREXIT-POLITICS
Minister defends UK’s Brexit plan amid party, business unrest
LONDON, July 8, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A eurosceptic cabinet minister on
Sunday defended Britain’s plan to adopt EU rules on goods after Brexit, amid
anger from MPs who want a cleaner break and concerns it will still harm
business.
Environment Secretary Michael Gove admitted the proposal, thrashed out by
warring ministers during a day-long meeting on Friday, was not everything he
wanted but said: “I’m a realist.”
Prime Minister Theresa May said that after agreeing a common approach,
she now expected years of ministerial in-fighting on Brexit to end.
But Sunday’s newspapers were full of reports of rebellion within her
Conservative party.
“There is a lot of unhappiness, there is a great deal of concern,”
veteran eurosceptic MP Bill Cash told Sky News television, questioning if the
proposal would lead to a “proper Brexit”.
Leading Brexit supporter Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, was widely
reported to have described the plan as a “turd” — before he agreed to
support it.
Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith said it appeared to run
contrary to promises to leave the EU’s single market and customs union.
“If the public perceive that not to be delivered then the government, I’m
afraid, will suffer the consequences at the next election,” he told the
Sunday Telegraph newspaper.
But Gove told the BBC: “All of the important areas where an independent
country chooses to exercise sovereignty, Britain will be able to do so.”
He stressed that Britain was leaving the European Union as planned in
March, adding: “You shouldn’t make the perfect the enemy of the good.”
– Open letter –
May’s plan would create a free trade area with the EU for goods, to
protect supply chains in areas such as manufacturing, while maintaining
flexibility for Britain’s dominant service sector.
But more than 100 entrepreneurs and business leaders signed an open
letter to MPs warning that this was not enough, and calling for Britain to
stay in the EU’s customs union.
“The cost, complexity and bureaucracy created by crashing out of the
customs union and adopting alternative arrangements is the last thing that
our businesses need as we seek to grow and employ more people,” it said,
according to The Times.
Organised by Richard Reed, the co-founder of Innocent Drinks, it was
signed by the founders of food chain Pret a Manger, bookshop Waterstones and
fashion retailer Net-A-Porter among others.
The House of Commons will vote on July 16 on a legislative amendment to
keep Britain in the customs union, and the opposition Labour party on Sunday
urged pro-European MPs to back it.
It is unclear whether the government’s proposal will be accepted by
Brussels, which has warned it will not accept attempts to “cherry-pick” bits
of its single market.
BSS/AFP/ARS/1805 hrs