Future relationship will ‘provide lasting answer’ to NI issue – Raab

The Northern Ireland backstop must be a "temporary and finite" bridge to the future relationship between the UK and the European Union, Brexit secretary Dominic Raab has told MPs. He said that next week's EU summit would be an important milestone in the Brexit negotiations but suggested that more time was needed to agree a deal.

“There will be no deal until you’ve got the whole deal and that includes not just the withdrawal agreement and the protocol on Northern Ireland but clear steps and a clear pathway to the future relationship, which will provide the lasting, sustainable answer on the Northern Ireland issue by making sure we have frictionless trade,” he said.

In his statement to the House of Commons on last month’s informal EU summit in Salzburg, Mr Raab declined to offer details of Britain’s forthcoming proposal on the backstop. It is expected to accept the need for Northern Ireland to remain aligned with the EU for goods regulation if no other solution is found to keep the Border open.

Temporary arrangement

Under the British proposal, the whole of the United Kingdom would remain in a "temporary customs arrangement" with the EU. Mr Raab said there was no question of Britain remaining indefinitely in a customs union, asserting that such an arrangement would create difficulties for the EU too.

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“From their perspective, there’s a difference in the way the customs union is described because for them it would normally include free movement and the rules of free movement, which in the case of the backstop wouldn’t apply. So there’s a lot of pressure on the EU, both legally and as a matter of policy to end the backstop, and we will not agree to anything which does not have a clear process and steps to exit,” he said.

DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds warned the government that his party would not tolerate any backstop that created customs or regulatory barriers between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. Mr Raab said Britain would honour the commitments it made in last December's joint report with the EU but would not agree to anything that violated the constitutional or economic integrity of the UK.

Dire consequences

Earlier on Tuesday Mr Raab's predecessor as Brexit secretary, David Davis, wrote to Conservative MPs warning of dire electoral consequences for the party if Theresa May does not abandon her Chequers plan for Brexit.

“If we stay on our current trajectory we will go into the next election with the government having delivered none of the benefits of Brexit, with the country reduced to being a rule-taker from Brussels, and having failed to deliver on a number of promises in the manifesto and in the Lancaster House speech. This will not be a technicality, it will be very obvious to the electorate. The electoral consequences could be dire,” he wrote.

Former Brexit minister Steve Baker said on Tuesday that at least 40 Conservative MPs were prepared to vote against the prime minister's plan.