Boris Johnson warns May: we want a deal with the EU, not a customs backstop: Brexit News for Monday 21 May

Boris Johnson warns May: we want a deal with the EU, not a customs backstop: Brexit News for Monday 21 May
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Boris Johnson warns May: we want a deal with the EU, not a customs backstop…

Boris Johnson has delivered a thinly-veiled warning to Theresa May that he and his fellow Brexiters still expect her to deliver a deal that avoids triggering the “backstop” that would keep Britain aligned to the customs union beyond 2020. The foreign secretary lost the argument in last week’s Brexit inner cabinet, when senior ministers agreed the UK would retain key aspects of the customs union if a solution to the Irish border problem was not found. In a message apparently aimed as much at the Prime Minister herself as at backbench colleagues, he said: “I’m convinced that the prime minister will be true to her promises of a Brexit deal – that sees Britain will come out of the customs union and single market, have borders as frictionless as possible, reject ECJ [European court of justice] interference, control immigration and be free to conduct unhindered free trade deals across the world. We must now give the prime minister time and space to negotiate this Brexit vision”. – Guardian

…but urges MPs to give the Prime Minister more ‘time and space’ to deliver on her Brexit promises

Boris Johnson yesterday urged MPs to give Theresa May the ‘time and space’ to deliver on her Brexit promises. The Foreign Secretary said he believed Brexiteers’ fears of a ‘betrayal’ were unfounded. But in a warning shot over a ‘backstop’ plan that could keep Britain tied to the EU’s customs union beyond Brexit, Mr Johnson stressed that ministers should not be planning to fail. He said the Prime Minister must deliver a final deal that leaves Britain ‘unhindered’ to strike new trade deals across the world. – Daily Mail

Jeremy Corbyn urged to clarify Labour’s position on Brexit…

The Labour leadership faces mounting pressure to clarify its position on Brexit after the local party in Lewisham selected a candidate who backs staying in the single market and the party’s international trade spokesman, Barry Gardiner, struggled to explain Labour’s position on the issue. Gardiner was appearing on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show in his first full interview after a  he made at a meeting in Brussels in March when he called parts of Labour’s policy as “bollocks”. Explaining his remarks on Sunday, he reiterated that Labour policy was to assess the Brexit deal by the government’s own promises. “They said that they could secure the exact same benefits outside of the European Union as they could inside it. That is what they said. Our test is to hold them to account for that,” he said. – Guardian

…as he faces pressure from young Labour members demanding a conference vote on a second Brexit referendum

Young Students chair Miriam Mirwitch came under fire from her own committee after signing her name to a letter calling for members to have a voice in the EU debate. Some three quarters of Labour members believe a second Brexit referendum should be held on the deal Theresa May strikes with Brussels – but Jeremy Corbyn has ruled out offering a vote. The letter, penned with Labour Students chair Melantha Chittenden, urged Jeremy Corbyn to allow a vote at the upcoming Labour conference on changing tack to support a second Brexit referendum. It said: “This will be the biggest issue to affect our generation; we deserve to have our voices heard by our own party.” But within hours of the letter’s release, the Young Labour National Committee issued its own statement disowning the demand and stating “its strong opposition to a second referendum on British membership” of the EU. It said it was not up to Young Labour to “ignore and condescend Leave voters” and insisted its mandate was to defend “the political leadership of Jeremy Corbyn”. – PoliticsHome

Barry Gardiner suggests he wanted to ‘advance thinking’ with ‘Good Friday Agreement played up in Brexit’ claim

The Shadow International Trade Secretary said private conversations were necessary in political negotiations, and that “sticking by the line” meant issues could never advance. It comes after he was recorded controversially telling a thinktank session in Brussels that the Irish government had an “economic interest” in exaggerating the importance of a tariff-free, frictionless border to keep violence at bay. – PoliticsHome

  • Shadow minister under fire over private remarks on Irish border – Guardian
  • Barry Gardiner in the tall grass over Labour’s Brexit splits – Scotsman

> On BrexitCentral’s YouTube: Barry Gardiner on describing Labour’s Brexit stance as ‘b*llocks*

> On BrexitCentral’s YouTube: Labour’s Barry Gardiner on Labour candidates campaigning for membership of the single market

Cabinet ministers visit Northern Ireland to scrutinise customs arrangements…

David Davis and Greg Clark are visiting Northern Ireland as part of their work on future customs arrangements with the EU after Brexit. The Brexit and Business secretaries joined their Northern Ireland counterpart Karen Bradley in meeting cross-border companies as part of their working group focusing on a proposed “highly-streamlined” option for tackling one of the thorniest outstanding issues. The Irish border and the potential impact of regulatory differences is central to negotiations on a pact ahead of next year’s withdrawal from the EU. – BT

  • UK ministers in Northern Ireland to discuss ‘max fac’ Brexit deal – The Times (£)

…as new poll finds just 21% support for a united Ireland, despite fears about post-Brexit Irish border

Two separate polls have found no evidence that Brexit has yet caused a radical shift in public opinion which would make a referendum on a united Ireland remotely winnable. In findings which have added significance because of the Prime Minister’s reported suggestion to Tory MPs last week that she was not confident a border poll would definitely be won by unionism, an Ipsos MORI poll for academics found that just 21.1% of people in Northern Ireland would vote for Irish unity after the UK leaves the EU. – Sam McBride for i News

Support for the Union remains strong

Support for the Union remains strong despite widespread fears that Brexit might cause a potential break-up of the UK, according to new polling. In England 68 per cent of people are in favour of the Union in its current form, while that drops to 66 per cent in Wales, 59 per cent in Northern Ireland and 52 per cent in Scotland, according to an ICM poll for think tank Policy Exchange. – City A.M.

Britain looks to Australia for help on Galileo rival

The UK is aiming to launch the first tenders for a satellite navigation system to rival Europe’s €10bn Galileo project by the end of the year, with hopes rising that Australia could become a partner in the programme. Britain is expected to signal its determination to press ahead with its own programme in discussions with EU negotiators next week, should Brussels continue to insist that the UK be barred from secure elements of Galileo. In a sign of the escalating tensions over the ban, the Ministry of Defence will on Monday announce plans to boost resources for a specialist space unit under the control of the Royal Air Force, which will explore military requirements for a UK global navigation system. – FT (£)

Japan to push for visa exemption in post-Brexit trade deal

Japanese companies are pushing for their employees to be exempt from strict visa quotas in any future trade deal with Britain after Brexit. “Even now the situation is becoming more difficult for us getting Japanese staff into the UK and our fear is that it will not become easier during the transition period,” said a senior executive at one of Japan’s largest trading houses. “The Japanese companies in the UK are experiencing a huge issue around people. Japanese expats are not getting in and the companies are tearing their hair out,” said Pernille Rudlin, the head of Japan Intercultural Consulting, a training and consulting firm based in the UK. – FT (£)

Britain will face crisis in recruitment, warn City UK and EEF

Two leading business lobby groups have urged the government to reform immigration rules amid growing fears that Britain will lose its competitive edge after Brexit. The demands increase calls from industry bodies for clarification about how immigration policy should be shaped. The City UK, which lobbies for financial and professional services firms, and EEF, an organisation representing manufacturers, have warned Theresa May that Britain’s key industries face a “recruitment crunch” after Britain leaves the European Union. Both groups believe that Brexit will restrict their access to skilled workers from European countries and will deter non-European citizens from applying to work in the UK. – The Times (£)

  • City risks backlash with plea for visa waiver for bankers after Brexit – Telegraph

UKIP ‘should fold’ if Brexit is done right, says its ex-Welsh leader

UKIP has no future and should fold if the right Brexit deal is done, the party’s former leader in Wales has said. MEP Nathan Gill said the party “could have been amazing” in Wales but had achieved nothing – due to internal rows. Mr Gill, who quit the assembly after infighting, said if Brexit was done properly UKIP would be “dead”. UKIP said Mr Gill did not speak for the party which would continue post Brexit. Mr Gill’s comments come after former Tory MP Neil Hamilton was ousted as leader of UKIP’s assembly group on Thursday, and replaced by AM Caroline Jones. Mr Gill, who quit his assembly job in January amid pressure about “double-jobbing” as an AM and MEP, said there was no future for UKIP if the UK Conservative government delivered the right Brexit deal. – BBC News

  • UKIP has a role beyond Brexit, Neil Hamilton says – BBC News

Owen Paterson and Sammy Wilson: Remainers are exploiting fantasies about the Irish border, aided by Dublin and Brussels

The poll in this newspaper revealing that support in Northern Ireland for leaving the UK stands at a paltry 21 per cent is a salutary reminder of the facts. Were there signs of majority opposition to the Union, Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley would be required by law to call a border poll. As there are none, she has confirmed that she will not be doing so. Indeed, the Union is markedly more popular in Northern Ireland than it is in Scotland. It is a myth to say a border poll needs calling, let alone that it is in danger of being lost, least of all “because of Brexit”. The most successful Union in history endures but, unfortunately, so do many other myths about Brexit and the border, and it would be useful to deal with them, too. – Owen Paterson MP and Sammy Wilson MP for the Telegraph (£)

Dominic Lawson: Who’d take lessons from the IRA’s chum Corbyn on Brexit and the Irish border?

The burden of responsibility on Theresa May’s shoulders as she attempts to negotiate Britain’s exit from the EU is as onerous as any British prime minister has endured since World War II. But until I spoke to one of her closest advisers a couple of days ago, I hadn’t realised the full extent of it. He pointed out that she is conducting negotiations in the awareness that the alternative government to her administration, if it failed in its task and fell, is led by a man without the slightest regard for any of the institutions of the British state. Jeremy Corbyn would be intolerably, perhaps lethally, irresponsible as a negotiator on behalf of our national interests. – Dominic Lawson for the Daily Mail

Arlene Foster: Unionists want to live in harmony with their nationalist neighbours

Today’s conference in London, The Union and Unionism — Past, Present and Future, organised by Policy Exchange is an important and timely event. During the early years of my life, just as Northern Ireland was on the edge of the Union geographically, it felt that it was also hanging over the edge politically and constitutionally. Today, the Democratic Unionist Party is playing our part in ensuring stable government at a crucial time in the nation’s history. Some have sought to use the UK exit from the EU as a means to foment division in Northern Ireland, but I have full confidence that a very healthy majority recognise the wealth of benefits the Union brings. Northern Ireland is transformed, and the old siege mentality is no longer applicable. – DUP leader Arlene Foster for The Times (£)

Paul Goodman: Boiling the Brexiteer frog

Readers will remember that, as Home Secretary, Theresa May took Britain out of 135 EU criminal justice measures only to opt us back in to 35 of them.  The backstop would be a version of the same process (though perhaps without the ECJ having a formal role). You may now ask: why are David Davis, Liam Fox, Michael Gove and Boris Johnson – let alone the 80 or so strong European Research Group (ERG) of Conservative MPs – putting up with all this? There are several answers, some of them good ones. – Paul Goodman for ConservativeHome

Brexit in brief

  • The gap remains wide on the impact of immigration – Guardian
  • Britons furious at guest list ‘stuffed’ with Remainers on Peston’s ITV show – Express
  • UK Conservatives split by Brexit seek to unite for survival – Bloomberg
  • France and Germany to press ahead with eurozone reform – FT (£)
  • Baby steps to Brexit – The Times editorial (£)
  • Is an early election really on the cards? – Katy Balls for the Spectator