Theresa May is facing a week of fresh parliamentary battles over Brexit as clashes centred on staying in a customs union with the EU continue to dog the Government.
With flagship Brexit legislation vulnerable to further attacks in the Lords, pro-European Tory MPs are set to voice their concerns over withdrawal on Thursday.
Downing Street sources insisted there would be no backsliding over quitting the customs union with Brussels after reports that the Prime Minister was ready to take a softer line.
Mrs May is set to face calls from leading Brexiteers Boris Johnson, David Davis and Liam Fox to abandon her preferred form of a customs deal with the EU, according to The Times.
A showdown is expected to come at a meeting of the Cabinet Brexit committee scheduled for Wednesday when the trio will tell the PM that a so-called customs partnership, where the UK would collect EU import tariffs on behalf of Brussels, would be unworkable, the report said.
“Part of the problem is that there are some in the European Union and in the Irish Republic who want to make out that we have to stay in the customs union and will not examine other alternatives.
“And votes like ones in the House of Lords are going to add to the view over there that somehow the British Government might U-turn or go back.
Labour MP Chuka Umunna and backbench pro-Remain Tory Anna Soubry have tabled amendments to the Trade and Customs Bill, due to be debated on Thursday, that will make staying in the customs union a legal objective of the Government.
We have an important general debate on Thursday on the customs union. Here are the crucial cross party amendments tabled by @Anna_Soubry, myself &others to the Trade & Customs Bills – which would be legally binding and force Ministers – to seek to keep us in the EU Customs Union. pic.twitter.com/mTzgbMtwSa
— Chuka Umunna (@ChukaUmunna) April 22, 2018
Mr Umunna said on Twitter: “The Brextremists threaten May with a leadership election if she concedes on the customs union but a new Tory leader would face the same Parliamentary arithmetic.”
MPs share the frustration of those who keep our constituents in work about the dangers of leaving the Customs Unions which is why there will be a cross party debate on it in the @HouseofCommons on Thursday.The key votes on this will come on the EU Withdrawal, Trade &Customs Bills
— Chuka Umunna (@ChukaUmunna) April 22, 2018
HMG has not timetabled the remaining stages of the Customs and Trade Bills because they fear they will be defeated. The Brextremists threaten May with a leadership election if she concedes on the customs union but a new Tory leader would face the same Parliamentary arithmetic.
— Chuka Umunna (@ChukaUmunna) April 22, 2018
Cabinet minister Sajid Javid tweeted that the referendum gave “clear instructions” to leave the customs union and accused some of seeing it as a “kind of post-Brexit comfort blanket”.
The Housing and Communities Secretary’s comments were rebuked by the head of the CBI, Paul Drechsler, who tweeted in reply: “An MP of your talent should rise above ideology and lead based of fact, analysis and evidence – all of which favours a customs union. Always happy to discuss.”
The Lords could deliver new defeats on the Government regarding incorporating the EU charter of fundamental rights into UK law, and pressing to ensure MPs get to decide what happens next if the Commons rejects a final Brexit deal with Brussels.
