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Liam Fox denies cabinet deal on transitional EU free movement Liam Fox denies cabinet deal on transitional EU free movement
(about 2 hours later)
Liam Fox has insisted the cabinet has not agreed a deal to allow free movement of labour for three years after Brexit. Liam Fox has said there is no cabinet-wide agreement for the suggestion by the chancellor, Philip Hammond, that free movement could continue for up to three years after Brexit.
The international trade secretary said any such move would “not keep faith” with the referendum result. Exposing a divide across Theresa May’s top table, the international trade secretary warned that “control of our own borders” was one of the key elements behind the leave vote and said free movement must end in 2019.
He told the Sunday Times: “If there have been discussions on that I have not been party to them. I have not been involved in any discussions on that.” His remarks came after Hammond said that “many things will look similar” on the day after Brexit in March 2019, with a three-year transitional period. The chancellor suggested a period during which free movement could continue alongside access to the single market and Britain would be constrained in signing new trade deals.
The chancellor, Philip Hammond, said on Friday there was “broad acceptance” in the cabinet of a post-Brexit transitional period lasting up to three years. He said there was “broad consensus” in the cabinet about the idea of that not extending beyond the next general election in June 2022.
He said this would mean “many arrangements remaining very similar to how they were the day before we exited the European Union”. But Fox, a vocal proponent for leaving the EU, said: “If there have been discussions on that, I have not been party to them. I have not been involved in any discussion on that, nor have I signified my agreement to anything like that.
Hammond said there would be a registration system in place for people coming to work in the UK after Brexit during the transitional period. “We made it clear that control of our own borders was one of the elements we wanted in the referendum, and unregulated free movement would seem to me not to keep faith with that decision.”
“If they come here to work after we leave the European Union, during that transitional period, the sensible approach will be to seek to register people so that we know who’s coming and who’s going,” he said. Speaking to the Sunday Times during his second visit to the US in a month to discuss future trade possibilities, Fox added that he was happy to talk about transitional arrangements with colleagues in May’s government. He had previously suggested that they could last until 2022.
Tory tensions were also on show when the former Brexit minister David Jones branded Hammond’s transition initiative “deeply dangerous” and accused the chancellor of “going on manoeuvres” while the prime minister, Theresa May, was abroad on holiday. “But that has to be an agreement by the cabinet. It can’t just be made by an individual or any group within the cabinet,” Fox said.
“All this agitation by the chancellor and his allies is hugely discourteous to her and undermines her authority,” Jones said in the Mail on Sunday. A senior government source said the prime minister’s Lancaster House speech had made clear that free movement would end in March 2019 and would be followed by a “time-limited implementation phase” that would be outlined in a white paper and then a parliamentary bill.
The pro-EU Tory MP Sir Nicholas Soames, on the other hand praised the chancellor, saying: “He has restored discipline to the political infant class who want Brexit at any cost. However, they claimed that the free movement system would end “by definition” because Britain would be outside the EU, leaving open the possibility that actual immigration limits could come in at a later date. The EU has long argued that unfettered access to the single market, which could continue for a short period to reduce the cliff edge for business, is reliant on the four freedoms, including movement of people.
“Instead of mindlessly criticising him, they should thank him for putting a stop to what was in danger of becoming a pub brawl.” The home secretary, Amber Rudd, is commissioning the independent Migration Advisory Committee to carry out a detailed analysis of the economic and social contributions and costs of EU citizens in Britain.
The war of words came as an ally of the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, also criticised Hammond’s plans. Announcing the study, Rudd also said the government would seek a transitional arrangement, likely to involve the continuation of free movement, to ensure there would be no “cliff edge” for employers or EU nationals in the country.
Gerard Lyons, who was an economic adviser to Johnson when he was the mayor of London, said a two-year transition period would work better. However, the study will not report back until September 2018 – seven months before Britain is set to formally exit the EU in March 2019.
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, he said: “Many of the ‘risks’ being highlighted about Brexit are perceived risks, not real risks. And a two-year transition would alleviate many concerns.” The Labour MP Heidi Alexander, a leading supporter of Open Britain, which campaigns for a soft Brexit, said the timing of Rudd’s report was concerning. “It beggars belief that the government have taken a year to get round to asking for expert evidence on the role played by EU nationals in our country,” she said.
Johnson has not yet commented publicly on Hammond’s transition plans. “Our immigration policy has been governed by anecdote and scaremongering, rather than evidence, since the moment Theresa May set foot in the Home Office in 2010. The timing of this announcement shows the total lack of preparation and understanding that has typified this government’s attitude to Brexit so far.”
Meanwhile, divisions in Labour over Brexit emerged as senior figures urged Jeremy Corbyn to commit to staying in the single market. The Labour party has also faced splits at the top level over leaving the EU with the shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, at loggerheads with the shadow trade secretary, Barry Gardiner, over whether the UK ought to try to remain in the customs union.
The Observer reported that opponents of quitting the single market might provoke a showdown at the party’s autumn conference by trying to force a vote on the issue. Overall, Labour has made clear that while free movement must end, immigration controls must take a second place to economic factors. Given that May now leads a minority government, the opposition could make life difficult for ministers across a series of complicated Brexit bills.
The former leader Lord Kinnock said: “The only way to mitigate the dreadful instability that will be costly for communities and industry is to try to ensure that, at least for a transitional period, we retain participation in the single market or the customs union, or both.”
Former lord chancellor Lord Falconer also backed staying in the single market and the TUC general secretary, Frances O’Grady, insisted the UK should not quit.
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, she said: “If there’s another way of getting a frictionless trade deal that protects jobs and rights at work, trade unions would love to know.”
Corbyn has said that Britain would leave the single market on Brexit, while other leading party figures such as the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, have said all options are on the table.