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Greening warns young voters won't forgive damaging Brexit deal Brexit: jobs at risk without frictionless trade, warns Greg Clark
(about 4 hours later)
The former education secretary Justine Greening has warned hardline Brexiters in the cabinet and parliament that they must make some compromises, adding that young voters will not forgive the Conservatives for an economically damaging departure deal. Tory Brexit moderates and business groups have made a last-ditch attempt to push for Theresa May’s preferred customs plan, with the business secretary warning that thousands of jobs would be at risk unless there is frictionless trade.
“You’re going to have to crack a few eggs to make an omelette, I’m afraid, on the Brexit situation, and they need to recognise that,” she told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday show. Greg Clark dismissed the idea that the prime minister’s idea for a customs partnership, in which the UK would collect import duties on behalf of the EU, had been rejected at a meeting last week of May’s Brexit inner cabinet.
Her comments came as the business secretary, Greg Clark, insisted that Theresa May’s preferred model of a customs partnership with the EU remained on the table, and that it could take several years for the necessary infrastructure for such an arrangement to be in place. Clark, one of May’s key allies on the issue, said thousands of car industry jobs could be lost unless firms could rely on instant deliveries of parts from the EU. The CBI and British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) then both rushed out supportive statements.
Before another crucial week of debate over various models of post-Brexit customs processes, Greening served notice that she and other backbench moderates were not willing to watch May be bullied by either the likes of Boris Johnson or the European Research Group (ERG) lobby of MPs. While a Downing Street source dismissed as “complete nonsense” the idea that this amounted to a coordinated campaign ordered by No 10, there were clear signs of a moderate Tory fightback against the influence of hard Brexiters in the cabinet and on the Conservative backbenches.
“I think people are frankly fed up with the Brexit debate,” she said. “It seems to be focused all about the personalities, all about the politicians, and not about people. And that needs to change.” Jacob Rees-Mogg, the head of the latter group, reiterated his warnings to May not to water down departure from the customs union, saying it would be “very odd” for her to push for the customs partnership.
Greening stepped down as education secretary in January after refusing a move to the work and pension department. In contrast, the former education secretary Justine Greening warned that hardline Brexiters, including in the cabinet, must make some compromises or risk alienating a generation of young voters by pushing through an economically damaging deal.
She hinted that May should call the bluff of Johnson and other pro-Brexit ministers, who have reportedly threatened to resign if the prime minister insists on a customs partnership with the EU. The latest jostling follows a meeting of May’s Brexit inner cabinet on Wednesday. This broke up without agreement, but with a seeming narrow majority against her preferred option, helped by the replacement of Amber Rudd as home secretary by the more leave-minded Sajid Javid.
“I hope they can show some leadership and I hope they recognise that it will require give and take from them as well,” Greening said. “All I can say is, I resigned from government and I’ve gone to the backbenches, and I’m doing just fine.” With no new meeting of the Brexit cabinet yet scheduled, discussions could resume at the full cabinet on Tuesday. Brexiters are pushing for a maximum facilitation model, or “max fac”, which would use technology to minimise border checks. The EU has rejected both this and May’s preferred plan as unworkable.
Greening also warned that voters wanted to “hear pragmatic voices in the Conservative party”. Clark, speaking on BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show, denied May’s plan was no longer an option, saying the Wednesday gathering had been “a much more professional, collegiate discussion than you would ever think from the reports”.
She said: “What we need is something that is politically sustainable and respects the result, but recognises that if we don’t deliver a Conservative Brexit – in other words it has our values at its heart, as in a strong economy, well-managed public finances, opportunity – then actually it won’t be something that carries the whole country.” It was, he said, “possible” that it may take until 2023 to put new customs infrastructure in place, adding: “If we can make progress, which I think we can, as to what the right arrangement is for the long term, then it may be possible to bring that in over that period of time.”
Greening said the many young people in her Putney constituency in south-west London would not forgive the Conservatives if they put dogma above practicalities with Brexit.
“Unless you make it work for communities like mine, as those voters get older and they form a bigger part of the electorate, they will simply demand a change,” she said.
“And I don’t think spending the next ten to 15 years, as a country, continuing to debate and argue about our relationship with our European neighbours, will serve this country’s future well.”
On Wednesday a meeting of the Brexit inner cabinet broke up without agreement on the government’s negotiating stance, with the new home secretary, Sajid Javid adding his voice to those casting doubt on May’s preferred option.
Clark, a key backer of May’s plan, insisted the idea remained possible and that it had been “a much more professional, collegiate discussion than you would ever think from the reports”.
Speaking on BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show, Clark said it was “possible” it may take until 2023 to put new customs infrastructure in place.
He said: “If we can make progress as to what, which I think we can, as to what the right arrangement is for the long term, then it may be possible to bring that in over that period of time.”
He also warned that thousands of jobs in the auto industry could be lost if there was not “a customs agreement that has the minimum of frictions”.He also warned that thousands of jobs in the auto industry could be lost if there was not “a customs agreement that has the minimum of frictions”.
This won support from Amber Rudd, the former home secretary, who tweeted: In a statement soon afterwards Carolyn Fairbairn, director general of the CBI, said any customs deal must involve “no tariffs or additional border checks, delays or red tape”.
@GregClarkMP quite right, making the case clearly and yes, passionately, for a Brexit that protects existing jobs and future investment #marr She said: “This is a time for pragmatic solutions, not ideology. To protect frictionless trade and ensure no return to a hard border on the island of Ireland, a customs union model based on status quo principles should remain in place unless and until an alternative is ready and workable.”
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the ERM and the backbench figurehead for hard-Brexit Tory MPs, insisted that May’s customs partnership, a supposed “hybrid model” under which the UK would collect EU import tariffs on behalf of Brussels, could not happen. Adam Marshall, head of the BCC, said: “If the government’s position is that the UK will not be in a customs union with the EU, it has an obligation to make this shift happen with the least possible disruption to business, consumers and the wider economy.”
It was poorly named, he told ITV’s Peston on Sunday show, “because it means the single market as well as customs union, and therefore we would not, in effect, be leaving the European Union.” Rees-Mogg told ITV’s Peston on Sunday such warnings were not believable: “This ‘project fear’ has been so thoroughly discredited that you would have thought it would have come to an end by now.”
EU members (plus Turkey, Andorra, Monaco and San Marino) trade without customs duties, taxes or tariffs between themselves, and charge the same tariffs on imports from outside the EU. Customs union members cannot negotiate their own trade deals outside the EU, which is why leaving it – while hopefully negotiating a bespoke arrangement – has been one of the government’s Brexit goals. See our full Brexit phrasebook.EU members (plus Turkey, Andorra, Monaco and San Marino) trade without customs duties, taxes or tariffs between themselves, and charge the same tariffs on imports from outside the EU. Customs union members cannot negotiate their own trade deals outside the EU, which is why leaving it – while hopefully negotiating a bespoke arrangement – has been one of the government’s Brexit goals. See our full Brexit phrasebook.
Referring to an article May wrote for the Sun on Sunday in which she pledged the UK would leave the customs union, Rees-Mogg said: “I think it would be very odd if the prime minister were to write one thing for the Sun on Sunday and for another thing to be going on in Downing Street.” But Greening said people were becoming “frankly fed up” with such debates. She told told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “It seems to be focused all about the personalities, all about the politicians, and not about people. And that needs to change.”
He also had robust words for those warning some form of customs union would be the only way to prevent a hard Irish border, and avoid the resultant risk of a return to sectarian terrorism. She hinted that May should call the bluff of Johnson and other pro-Brexit ministers, who have reportedly threatened to resign if the prime minister insists on her plan.
Asked if this was not a concern, he said: “I’d go further than that. I think it deeply disgraceful that people who wish to keep us in the European Union are threatening the spectre of a return to terror to try and make people accept their view.” “I hope they can show some leadership and I hope they recognise that it will require give and take from them as well,” Greening said. “All I can say is, I resigned from government and I’ve gone to the backbenches, and I’m doing just fine.”
Greening also said voters wanted to hear “pragmatic voices” in the Conservative party, saying many young people in her Putney constituency in south-west London would not forgive them if they put dogma above practicalities .
“Unless you make it work for communities like mine, as those voters get older and they form a bigger part of the electorate, they will simply demand a change,” she said.
BrexitBrexit
Justine GreeningJustine Greening
Greg ClarkGreg Clark
Theresa MayTheresa May
Boris JohnsonBoris Johnson
Sajid JavidSajid Javid
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