Britain proposes one-year Brexit backstop plan to EU

After 24 hours of scrambling to keep her Brexit minister, David Davis, on board, May published what the government called the temporary customs arrangement. This would ensure no return to a hard border involving reinstated customs controls on the frontier between the British province of Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland.

Instead it would see Britain staying tied to the EU’s customs union after an almost two-year transition period if there were any delay in implementing a Brexit deal possibly for a year. The government said in the proposal that it “expects” to get a withdrawal agreement by the end of December 2021.

Britain may hope that this wording might still win approval from officials in Brussels. The EU’s Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier welcomed the publication but said the backstop plan must not damage the EU’s single market and customs union.

“The UK is clear that the temporary customs arrangement, should it be needed, should be time limited,” the document, which was also sent to Brussels, said.

“The UK expects the future arrangement to be in place by the end of December 2021 at the latest. There are a range of options for how a time limit could be delivered, which the UK will propose and discuss with the EU.”

This was not the government’s preferred option, the document said, but if it was triggered, Britain should have the right to negotiate, sign and ratify trade deals with other parts of world and it should apply to the whole of the United Kingdom.

ROWS AND RIFTS

At the heart of the problem is ensuring there is no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, which both Britain and the EU have committed to. Some politicians say any return of border controls could disrupt a peace agreement to reduce sectarian conflict in the north.

It was not clear whether the EU would accept the proposal. Barnier asked on Twitter whether it met his three criteria: “Is it a workable solution to avoid a hard border? Does it respect the integrity of the SM/CU (single market/customs union)? Is it an all-weather backstop?”

EU negotiators have rejected previous British proposals on the grounds that time limits for finding other solutions were not acceptable. Applying a new customs and economic regulation deal to the whole of Britain and not just Northern Ireland could be a “backdoor” way for Britain to keep access to EU markets without being subject to all the EU’s rules, they have said.

Earlier, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said he could not agree to a time-limited version of the backstop arrangement.

The publication of the proposal comes after days of rows in May’s cabinet of top ministers which have all but stalled talks, brought warnings from EU officials and weighed on sterling, with investors uneasy over the lack of progress.

Media reports suggested Davis had threatened to resign and the apparent move to compromise with him is yet another sign of the difficulty a weakened prime minister is having in driving the negotiations with the EU.

And even though many welcomed the end of the wait for a decision, several in the two camps dividing May’s Conservatives - those who want to keep close ties with the EU and others demanding a clean break with the bloc - criticised the “fudge”.

“I don’t believe that we should get involved in any backstop proposals, but at least we can see the end of the tunnel,” said David Jones, a Conservative former Brexit minister, expressing doubt over whether the EU would accept the proposal.

The pound slipped to the day’s low of $1.3371 in the hours after the proposal’s publication.

“Irrespective of the news flow we are still in the same position. We are no closer to knowing the relationship Britain is going to have (with the EU),” said Jane Foley, a currencies strategist at Rabobank.

Opposition Labour lawmaker and pro-EU campaigner Chris Leslie criticised the government, saying the situation would be laughable if it weren’t so serious. “The fudged document they have produced doesn’t engage with any of the key Brexit dilemmas and is highly unlikely to lead to anything but more gridlock in the ongoing talks with the EU,” he said in a statement.