Theresa May is facing a fresh showdown with Eurosceptic Conservative MPs after a Cabinet minister suggested she may ask parliament to approve her Brexit deal again without having legally removed the Irish backstop from the withdrawal text.
Ahead of talks between May and EU leaders, the Culture Secretary, Jeremy Wright, said the prime minister’s aim was to solve the Northern Ireland backstop issue but the “mechanism” of the change did not matter.
The culture secretary’s words caused alarm among some Eurosceptic Tory MPs, who have repeatedly made clear they would not vote for a deal that does not remove an indefinite Northern Ireland backstop – a clause that could bind the UK into a permanent customs union with the EU.
The former attorney general, Wright, told the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show: “I think what’s obvious is that parliament, and I think probably people well beyond parliament, are concerned about the potential indefinite nature of the backstop – that’s what we’ve got to do something about.
“If this is the only way of doing it then that’s the way we will pursue. If there are other ways of doing it that are just as effective that perhaps we haven’t yet explored then we will do that too.”
He continued: “I don’t think it’s the mechanism that matters, it’s the objective: if you can get to a place where the potential longevity of the backstop, the potential that the backstop lasts forever can be adequately dealt with, that’s what we’re all seeking to do.
“That’s what parliament has been very clear that it wants, it will back this deal if we can do something about the backstop.”
May issued a plea for unity in a letter to Conservative MPs over the weekend, stressing that she and the attorney general would set out how to “eliminate any legal risk that the backstop would be applied indefinitely”.
However, Eurosceptic MPs say they would refuse to support any solution that simply amounts to an addendum or codicil to the EU deal, saying they want the backstop removed from the withdrawal text.
Steve Baker, the former Brexit minister and influential figure in the European Research Group (ERG), retweeted a message saying Brexiter Tories would not like the sound of Wright’s suggestion.
He has consistently emphasised that the ERG would rather support a ‘no-deal’ Brexit than one that did not legally remove the backstop.
In leaked WhatsApp messages, he told fellow Conservative MPs that failure to remove the Irish backstop completely could mean things would “just grind towards a party split” and he expressed fears that the prime minister’s negotiations were “a complete waste of time”.
Eurosceptic Tories believe the government may be trying to run down the clock towards Brexit day before bringing back a barely amended agreement with the EU and pressuring MPs to vote for it instead of the alternative of leaving without a deal.
Boris Johnson also made clear last month: “We can’t have some codicil or letter or joint declaration. We need to go back into the text of the treaty and solve the problem.”
However, Martin Howe QC, a lawyer supported by many Brexiters, said in the Sunday Telegraph that the EU might be able to perform “keyhole surgery” to the withdrawal agreement in a way that would satisfy all sides if it legally overrode the withdrawal text.
“Only a treaty-level clause which confers an unconditional right on the UK to exit the backstop would work,” he wrote. “Preferably this should be inserted into the actual protocol text, but if it is in an addendum or separate document it must be crystal clear that it overrides the protocol text and is not just some kind of interpretation of it.”
Chris Heaton-Harris, a Brexit minister, insisted yesterday that May was serious about negotiations and would seek to come up with a solution that satisfied everyone in the party.
He told Sky’s Sophy Ridge yesterday there was a “huge amount of activity” between the UK and Brussels. “The government is not trying to run the clock down. The government is trying to get a negotiated deal with our European partners,” he added.
Theresa May
