May’s cabinet to discuss Brexit talks amid standoff over backstop

Theresa May's cabinet will discuss Brexit negotiations on Tuesday morning amid a continuing standoff over the terms of a backstop to guarantee no return to a hard Irish border.

Downing Street has dismissed speculation about an imminent breakthrough in the talks, which resumed in Brussels on Monday. "We continue to make good progress in the negotiations, but there is work still to do," the prime minister's official spokesman said.

Downing Street characterised Mrs May's call to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar on Monday as an opportunity to take stock of the progress being made in the negotiations.

"In a constructive conversation, the prime minister and the Taoiseach discussed the remaining issues. They agreed that the intention was that the backstop should only be a temporary arrangement and that the best solution to the Northern Ireland border would be found by agreeing a future relationship between the UK and the EU," Downing Street said.

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“In order to ensure that the backstop, if ever needed, would be temporary, the prime minister said that there would need to be a mechanism through which the backstop could be brought to an end.”

Brexit secretary Dominic Raab on Monday dismissed reports that he was on the verge of resigning over the backstop. A number of newspapers reported this week that Mr Raab told Tánaiste Simon Coveney that Britain should be able to unilaterally invoke a review mechanism to end the backstop within three months of its entry into operation.

Downing Street declined to comment on the reports or to endorse the demand for a unilateral review mechanism. The prime minister’s spokesman also declined to comment on reports that Britain is proposing a system of third-party arbitration to determine when the conditions are fulfilled for an end to the backstop.

Customs union

The EU is willing to consider Britain’s proposal for a UK-wide customs backstop that would create a temporary, bare-bones customs union with the EU. It would sit in the legally-binding withdrawal agreement alongside customs and regulatory provisions specific to Northern Ireland.

Former Brexit minister Steve Baker, a leading figure in the European Research Group of Conservative Brexiteers, said Britain must be able to leave a customs union in a timely way.

“If we are going to regulate our own economy, if we are going to have our own independent trade policy, if we are going to be a normal independent country, which is what I understood the referendum result to have decided, then we need to be out of the customs union, and we need to get out of the customs union in a timely way,” he told the BBC.

Chancellor of the exchequer Philip Hammond told MPs that he remained very confident Britain would get a good deal from its negotiations with the EU. He told the treasury select committee that a deal on the withdrawal agreement would see confidence return to the British economy very quickly, while leaving without a deal would have a negative impact.