Tory Brexit moderates and business groups have made a last-ditch attempt to push for Theresa May’s preferred customs plan, with the business secretary warning that thousands of jobs would be at risk unless there is frictionless trade.

Greg Clark dismissed the idea that the prime minister’s idea for a customs partnership – in which the UK would collect import duties on behalf of the EU – had been rejected at a meeting last week of May’s Brexit inner cabinet.

Clark, one of May’s key allies on the issue, said thousands of car industry jobs could be lost unless firms could rely on instant deliveries of parts from the EU. The CBI and British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) then both rushed out supportive statements.

While a Downing Street source dismissed as “complete nonsense” the idea that this amounted to a coordinated campaign ordered by No 10, there were clear signs of a moderate Tory fightback against the influence of hard Brexiters in the cabinet and on the Conservative backbenches.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the head of the latter group, reiterated his warnings to May not to water down departure from the customs union, saying it would be “very odd” for her to push for the customs partnership.

In contrast, the former education secretary Justine Greening said hardline Brexiters, including those in the cabinet, must make some compromises or risk alienating a generation of young voters by pushing through an economically damaging deal.

A meeting of May’s Brexit inner cabinet on Wednesday broke up without agreement but apparently with a narrow majority against her preferred option.

With no new meeting of the Brexit cabinet yet scheduled, discussions could resume at the full cabinet on Tuesday. Brexiters are pushing for a maximum facilitation model, or “max fac”, which would use technology to minimise border checks. The EU has rejected both this and May’s preferred plan as unworkable.

Clark, speaking on BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show, denied May’s plan was no longer an option, saying the Wednesday gathering had been “a much more professional, collegiate discussion than you would ever think from the reports”.



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He said it was possible that it would take until 2023 to put new customs infrastructure in place. “If we can make progress, which I think we can, as to what the right arrangement is for the long term, then it may be possible to bring that in over that period of time.”

Clark also said thousands of jobs in the car industry could be lost if there was not “a customs agreement that has the minimum of frictions”.

In a statement soon afterwards, Carolyn Fairbairn, director general of the CBI, said any customs deal must involve “no tariffs or additional border checks, delays or red tape.”

She said: “This is a time for pragmatic solutions, not ideology. To protect frictionless trade and ensure no return to a hard border on the island of Ireland, a customs union model based on status quo principles should remain in place unless and until an alternative is ready and workable.”

Adam Marshall, head of the BCC, said: “If the government’s position is that the UK will not be in a customs union with the EU, it has an obligation to make this shift happen with the least possible disruption to business, consumers and the wider economy.”

Rees-Mogg told ITV’s Peston on Sunday such warnings were not believable. “This ‘project fear’ has been so thoroughly discredited that you would have thought it would have come to an end by now,” he said.

Q&A What is a customs union? Show Hide A customs union means that countries agree to apply no or very low tariffs to goods sold between them, and to collectively apply the same tariffs to imported goods from the rest of the world. International trade deals are then negotiated by the bloc as a whole. For the EU, this means deals are negotiated by by Brussels, although individual member state governments agree the mandate and approve the final deal. The EU has trade deals covering 69 countries, including Canada and South Korea, which the UK has been attempting to roll over into post-Brexit bilateral agreements. Proponents of an independent UK trade policy outside the EU customs union say Britain must forge its own deals if it is to take advantage of the world’s fastest-growing economies. However they have never explained why Germany manages to export more than three times the value in goods to China than Britain does, while also being in the EU customs union. Jennifer Rankin

Greening said people were becoming “frankly fed up” with such debates. She told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “It seems to be focused all about the personalities, all about the politicians, and not about people. And that needs to change.”



She hinted that May should call the bluff of Boris Johnson and other pro-Brexit ministers, who have reportedly threatened to resign if the prime minister insists on her plan.



“I hope they can show some leadership and I hope they recognise that it will require give and take from them as well,” Greening said. “All I can say is, I resigned from government and I’ve gone to the backbenches, and I’m doing just fine.”

Greening said voters wanted to hear “pragmatic voices” in the Conservative party, saying many young people in her Putney constituency in south-west London would not forgive them if they put dogma above practicalities.

“Unless you make it work for communities like mine, as those voters get older and they form a bigger part of the electorate they will simply demand a change,” she said.