PM meets Cabinet amid fight to hold EU divorce deal
Theresa May is fighting to keep her EU divorce deal on track today amid a furious backlash from Ireland and Eurosceptics.
The PM will gather her Cabinet as she seeks to quell fears that the package dramatically agreed in Brussels on Friday has tied us into 'soft' Brexit.
But Mrs May is also trying to appease anger in Dublin after David Davis insisted the painstakingly-assembled deal was merely a 'statement of intent'.
Irish PM Leo Varadkar previously described Britain's commitments to ensure no return to a hard border as 'cast-iron' and 'bullet proof'.
The Brexit Secretary was embarrassingly sent out this morning to try to clarify his comments - promising that the UK would stand by the arrangements and they were 'more than legally enforceable'.
The government is desperate to paper over the cracks at least until after a crucial EU summit later this week, when the bloc's leaders will decide whether to approve the start of trade talks.
In a statement to the Commons after the Cabinet meeting this morning, Mrs May is due to vow that a sovereign UK will 'take control of its borders, money and laws once again'.
Striking an upbeat note about the next phase of talks with Brussels on trade and other issues, she will call for 'bold new economic and security relationships' with the EU after we leave.
Mrs May is likely to get a warm reception from Tory MPs in the House - but there are still significant misgivings about the divorce deal, and whether she is signing away the UK's ability to forge its own regulations after Brexit.
The PM (pictured on the plane en route to Brussels early Friday morning) will gather her Cabinet today as she seeks to quell fears that the divorce package has tied us into 'soft' Brexit
Irish PM Leo Varadkar (pictured left in Dublin last week) has insisted the divorce deal is 'bullet proof'. But David Davis (pictured right on the BBC's Andrew Marr show with Labour's Keir Starmer yesterday) suggested it was merely a 'statement of intent'
Theresa May, pictured with Jean-Claude Juncker last Monday, will strike an upbeat note about the next phase of talks with Brussels on trade and other issues
The Brexit Secretary, left with the Prime Minister, also moved to calm fears of Brexiteers concerned by a section of the agreement which said Britain would have 'full alignment' with the EU on regulations and standards that had an impact on Northern Ireland
Last week – after a frenetic 24 hours of diplomacy – Mrs May concluded her agreement with European Commission negotiators on the rights of EU nationals, the divorce settlement and Northern Ireland.
It included a provision that there will be 'full alignment' between the UK and EU on key trade rules.
ALL THAT BREXIT JARGON EXPLAINED What is 'full alignment'? In last week's Brexit deal, Theresa May agreed to keep the UK in 'full alignment' with the EU on issues relevant to Northern Ireland. Remainers seized upon the language to say it meant Britain would be closely tied to Brussels, but ministers insist it does not mean Britain will be tied directly to the single market and customs union. David Davis said it meant Britain will meet the same 'outcomes' – but not do it 'by just copying what the EU does'. What is 'divergence'? Brexiteers warn it would be a disaster to tie Britain too closely to the EU's rules. They want to allow for maximum 'divergence' – distance from the EU – so Britain can negotiate better trade deals with non-EU countries. However, managing the border between the North and South of Ireland becomes more difficult the more the UK diverges from EU rules. For example, if Britain did a US trade deal to allow chlorine-washed chicken into the UK, how can you prevent the chicken being sold into the European market? What happens next? Cabinet ministers must decide next week what the UK wants the 'end state' of relations with the EU to look like – that is, how much divergence they will seek. In theory, the more distance Britain seeks, the more restrictive its trade deal could be. The Cabinet's crunch meeting is next Tuesday – expect Remainers to call for less divergence and Brexiteers for more freedom.
The clause was essential to winning Irish support, but sparked fury in the DUP - whose 10 MPs are propping Mrs May up in power.
They humiliatingly torpedoed the PM's first attempt to seal the deal on Monday, even though she was already in Brussels about to make a statement with Mr Juncker.
After days of frantic work, a new clause was included spelling out that any alignment would apply to the UK as a whole rather than just Northern Ireland.
However, Mr Davis risked reopening the bitter dispute yesterday as he moved to calm concerns that the commitment meant the whole UK would 'cut and paste' rules from Brussels.
He said the deal on Ireland was 'much more a statement of intent than it was a legally enforceable thing', and Britain would be allowed to change its rules as long as they resulted in similar outcomes.
The Irish government's chief whip, Joe McHugh, said last night: 'We will as a government, a sovereign government in Ireland, be holding the UK to account, as will the EU.'
Mr Davis claimed today that his words had been 'completely twisted'.
He told LBC Radio: 'What I actually said yesterday in terms was we want to protect the peace process, want to protect Ireland from the impact of Brexit for them, and I said this was a statement of intent which was much more than just legally enforceable.
'Of course it's legally enforceable under the withdrawal agreement but even if that didn't happen for some reason, if something went wrong, we would still be seeking to provide a frictionless invisible border with Ireland.'
In a statement to MPs today, Mrs May will confront doubters who suggested we wouldn't get past phase one of the talks. She will also seek to unify Brexiteers and Remainers in her Cabinet.
She will say: 'I have always been clear that this was never going to be an easy process. It has required give and take for the UK and the EU to move forward together. And that is what we have done.
'Of course, nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. But there is, I believe, a new sense of optimism now in the talks and I fully hope and expect that we will confirm the arrangements I have set out today in the European Council later this week.
FACT BOX TITLE He said the main qualification for his job was staying calm, but that had been tested as he and the PM fought to get a compromise. Mr Davis said: 'What's the requirement of my job? I don't have to be very clever, I don't have to know that much, I do just have to be calm. 'And that did test the calmness a bit, a little bit. 'But we had to pick another day and we looked at Wednesday but Wednesday wasn't long enough for the DUP to sort themselves out so we made it Thursday, Friday morning.'
'In doing so, we can move on to building the bold new economic and security relationships that can underpin the new deep and special partnership we all want to see.
'A partnership between the European Union and a sovereign United Kingdom that has taken control of its borders, money and laws once again.
'A partnership that is in the best interests of the whole United Kingdom. And a partnership which can deliver prosperity and security for all our people, for generations to come.'
In his interview today, Mr Davis gave an insight into the tensions of last week, as the DUP collapsed the first attempt to get a deal.
He said the main qualification for his job was staying calm, but that had been tested as he and the PM fought to get a compromise.
Mr Davis said: 'What's the requirement of my job? I don't have to be very clever, I don't have to know that much, I do just have to be calm.
'And that did test the calmness a bit, a little bit.
'But we had to pick another day and we looked at Wednesday but Wednesday wasn't long enough for the DUP to sort themselves out so we made it Thursday, Friday morning.'
LABOUR: BRITAIN MUST ACCEPT EASY MIGRATION FROM EU Appearing on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show yesterday, Sir Keir said Britain should 'stay aligned' to the EU after Brexit to preserve the benefits of the single market and customs union Britain should accept 'easy migration' from Europe, swallow EU laws and carry on paying billions to Brussels after Brexit, Labour frontbencher Sir Keir Starmer suggested last night. After months of chaos and conflicting statements about the party's position, the Brexit spokesman suggested the concessions were the necessary price for a trade deal. He also refused to rule out offering voters a second referendum on whether Britain should leave at all. Sir Keir was immediately accused of trying to 'betray' voters by failing to honour the referendum result. Brexit Secretary David Davis said the Labour MP would 'take us back to square one' and fail to get back control of Britain's laws, borders and money. Mr Davis said: 'Keir Starmer could not have been clearer about what the consequences of Labour's chaotic approach to Brexit would be. 'A Labour Brexit would mean billions of pounds going to the EU in perpetuity, the UK being forced to obey rules over which we have no say and zero control over our borders. 'A Labour Brexit would betray voters and leave this country in the worst possible position.' Appearing on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show yesterday, Sir Keir said Britain should 'stay aligned' to the EU after Brexit to preserve the benefits of the single market and customs union. He indicated that the UK could mimic Norway's arrangement with the EU, which involves accepting single market rules and paying a contribution to EU coffers. The House of Commons library estimates that Norway pays, per capita, about 80 per cent of the UK's contribution. That could leave Britain with an annual bill of about £8 billion. Sir Keir said staying close to the single market and customs union was necessary to avoid a hard border in Northern Ireland. The Labour frontbencher said freedom of movement rules would 'have to be negotiated', but added: 'The end of free movement doesn't mean no movement. 'Of course we would want people to come from the European Union to work here, we would want people who are here to go and work in the EU – the basis of that would have to be negotiated.' Asked if this would mean 'easy movement', if not free, he said: 'Yes, of course.'