Semantics come to mind as officials deny any division in government ranks – despite the very different opinions being voiced by senior Tories

Hammond and Fox are not on the same Brexit page

Senior government sources have argued that the chancellor, Philip Hammond, and international trade secretary, Liam Fox, are on the same page when it comes to Brexit.

“The chancellor is absolutely right to say freedom of movement will end in March 2019 and a new immigration system will be implemented,” went the logic.

“Similarly, Liam is absolutely right to say that freedom of movement continuing after March 2019, would not be right.”

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The word semantics springs to mind. While the two statements above are technically both correct, Hammond and Fox (and other remain and leave voices across the cabinet) have very different outlooks.

So why was a senior official able to reel off the two phrases in a bid to play down any idea of a divide?

It is true that most senior Conservative politicians agree that we should respect the referendum result and leave the European Union and that one of the key drivers of the vote was a desire to control our borders.

So when we officially leave the EU on 29 March, 2019 (on a day that will see Britain divided again in celebration and despair) the free movement that we are signed up to through our membership of the bloc will end; Britain will take control of its borders.

The question is what we then do with that control. Some say the answer should be to plough ahead with immediate limits that will help Theresa May achieve her target of bringing net migration down to the tens of thousands.

However, an argument being increasingly advanced by Hammond, home secretary Amber Rudd, and a number of other soft-Brexiters at the Cabinet table is that for a short period we do very little with our newfound control.

Instead, we allow EU citizens to keep arriving, but we ask them to register. The reason for such a liberal outlook is that it would allow Britain to secure a transitional deal that might include unfettered access to the single market and some form of associate membership with the customs union.

It would also provide some room to breathe for the ministers dealing with the immense task of registering 3 million EU citizens already in the country – who are being given a two-year grace period largely because the government also needs it.

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We don’t actually know what Fox thinks is necessary in migration terms. He made clear during the referendum and again this weekend in the US that British people voted to control their borders. However, he hasn’t suggested what that might mean in terms of numbers – and that is an issue that could cause trouble in meetings that will get underway in September.

But there is another point that could cause more tension. Sources suggest that senior Treasury officials are not merely eyeing up the possibility of a transitional deal in which the UK signs up to some form of associate membership with the customs union, they also quite like the idea of such an agreement lasting into the future.

That would mean the UK having to honour the external EU tariff, and would – in turn – mean no possibility of future trade agreements with third-party countries.

All of which would leave Fox in a tricky position given that his job depends on the ability to strike trade deals abroad, and that he is spending the summer drumming up business, including in the US.

The Treasury is often in the centre of cross-governmental pressures – usually caused by departmental demands around autumn and spring budgets.

But Hammond has two fights on his hands: fighting off demands to ease austerity while also taking up the challenge of being the government’s leading voice for soft-Brexit.