Theresa May urged to EXTEND Brexit transition period in bid to break customs deadlock
THERESA May has been urged to extend the UK’s Brexit transition period as it leaves the EU in a bid to resolve growing infighting over the UK’s future customs arrangement with the bloc.
Top political figures including two key allies of Environment Secretary Michael Gove and Mrs May’s former Chief of Staff Nick Timothy have called on the Prime Minister to abandon her preferred option of a customs partnership in favour of the ‘maximum facilitation’ customs arrangement.
Mr Timothy stated the “maximum facilitation” option was still viable as “ministers might accept that it will take longer to be introduced than the current implementation timetable suggests”.
This sentiment was echoed by Nick Boles, a close ally of Michael Gove and former Skills Minister, who agreed that extending the final Brexit deadline was a preferable outcome.
He said: “The solution lies in the careful, deliberate development of new systems of customs cooperation, exploiting all of the possibilities of new technology so-called ‘maximum facilitation’.”
This must not be rushed and will not be ready by the end of the transition in December 2020
However he acknowledged that this option would take time, stating: “This must not be rushed and will not be ready by the end of the transition in December 2020.”
The “maximum facilitation” option would involve using technology and a “trusted fader” plan to reduce post-Brexit customs checks by monitoring the border and goods passing through it, but critics believe it will take too long to develop the necessary technology.
Henry Newman, the Director of think tank Open Europe and former adviser to Mr Gove, also criticised Mrs May’s proposed customs partnership.
He said: “Customs Partnership could entail the UK paying very large sums of money to the EU in the long-term - something the Government has so-far ruled out.”
Duke of Wellington: Brexit deadline could be extended by weeks
Mr Newman branded the customs partnership “bad politics, bad policy and a bad plan”.
He noted that Mrs May must make it “clear that it would likely mean the UK continuing to pay a substantial proportion of any customs revenues collected at our borders to the EU”.
Mrs May is pushing for a “customs partnership” with the EU which would see the UK collecting import tariffs on behalf of the EU, but this option was rejected by six of her 11 ministers in her Brexit Cabinet last week.
The Prime Minister plans to present an adapted version of her system to her Cabinet in crunch meetings next Tuesday in a bid to break the deadlock.
But signs of a compromise deal have emerged, and the three critics calling for an extension to the transition period believe it would help sell the “maximum facilitation” option ahead of the meeting next Tuesday.
Mrs May’s plans were also slammed by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who stated: “If you have the new customs partnership, you have a crazy system whereby you end up collecting the tariffs on behalf of the EU at the UK frontier.
“If the EU decides to impose punitive tariffs on something the UK wants to bring in cheaply there’s nothing you can do.”
However he backtracked yesterday, declaring: "I'm completely in conformity with the Government policy on the matter to which I think he's referring to - since that policy is yet to be decided."