Theresa May has secured approval to negotiate a soft Brexit deal with the European Union, signing up her fractious cabinet at a Chequers away day to what had been a controversial plan to match EU standards on food and goods.
The prime minister released a statement following the critical afternoon session of the long-awaited summit, in which she also confirmed she had won over the cabinet to new customs arrangements ending political deadlock on the issue.
May said that the cabinet had agreed our collective position for the future of our negotiations with the EU. That included a proposal to create a UK-EU free trade area which establishes a common rule book for industrial goods and agricultural products after Brexit.
On Thursday, when the common rule book proposal was first leaked, hardline Brexiter cabinet ministers and Conservative MPs voiced alarm that it could prevent the UK striking a trade deal with the US, which has different standards in goods and foods, such as allowing chickens to be washed in chlorine.
But May was able to release the text of a three-page agreed statement before cabinet ministers sat down for dinner to listen to Number 10 communications chiefs make a presentation on how to sell the new proposals, following a period of near continuous cabinet leaks.
Ministers had been told to surrender their phones in line with what was described as standard practice for cabinet meetings when they arrived at Chequers at around 10am with none of their advisers present, meaning that they were not able to immediately present their version of events.
May had asked everybody with the right to attend cabinet to be present, a total of 29 people, meaning that a greater proportion of those present were expected to be loyal to her and despite speculation that some ministers could stage a walkout through the Buckinghamshire countryside to the nearest train station there was no sign of Boris Johnson or any other hard Brexiter leaving before dinner.
The cabinet agreement represents a rapid turnaround in a 24-hour period, after the prime minister had been forced on to the defensive after the common rulebook proposal was leaked. Seven cabinet ministers, led by Boris Johnson, had met to discuss their concerns at the Foreign Office, including Michael Gove, Penny Mordaunt, David Davis, Liam Fox, Esther McVey and Andrea Leadsom.
Johnson then went on to meet David Cameron on Thursday evening, at a meeting in which the accounts of what happened were disputed on Friday. Sources close to Johnson tried to claim that the two men agreed the plans presented by the prime minister were “the worst of all worlds” and that he told his fellow Etonian he should finally take pride in Brexit, having called the referendum.
Cameron’s former spin doctor Sir Craig Oliver rebutted the claims, saying that the former prime minister had always understood compromise will be necessary.
He added: It’s also wrong to claim he sees himself as the father of Brexit. Why would that be true when he fought it tooth and nail?
Others added that Cameron had even persuaded Johnson not to resign from the government.
A string of hard Brexiter Conservative backbenchers had also voiced concern about the arrangements on Thursday, but it will now be the job of cabinet members to brief MPs in the party as to the merits of the negotiating strategy proposed by May that will form the basis of a white paper due to be published next week.
The government statement also formally proposed a new ‘third way’ for handling customs in the future, ending the cabinet standoff between May’s once preferred customs partnership and the Brexiter’s maximum facilitation model. It said that the UK would propose a new facilitated customs arrangement which would see the UK levy its own tariffs and then refund the difference if the goods went on to the EU.
Earlier on Friday, Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, struck an emollient tone. I am ready to adapt our offer should the UK red lines change, Barnier said in a speech to the Institute of International and European Affairs in Brussels.
Our objective has always been to find an agreement with the UK, not against. He called on all sides to stop arguing over the Irish border, imploring everyone to de-dramatise the issue.
Woody Johnson, the US ambassador to the UK, would not be drawn into the detail of the trade deal row, but speaking on Friday reiterated Donald Trump’s desire to strike agreement with Britain.
The president has been clear since the beginning of his term he wants to do a bilateral trade deal, and he’s really ready to step up on that the minute he gets the go-ahead to do it. And he’ll get it done fast, as I know it’s a major priority for him, he said.
But businesses continued to press for rapid progress in the Brexit talks before the outcome of the summit was known. The chief executive of aircraft manufacturer Airbus, Tom Enders, said: The sun is shining brightly on the UK, the English team is progressing towards the [World Cup] final, the RAF is preparing to celebrate its centenary, before warning Her Majesty’s government still has no clue, no consensus, on how to execute Brexit without severe harm.