PM promises new relationship with EU outside single market but continues to grapple with pro-leave MPs who oppose hybrid ‘customs partnership’

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Theresa May has insisted she has the “determination to deliver Brexit” as she comes under pressure from both wings of the Tory party to change course.

Eurosceptics have urged the prime minister to drop the proposal for a hybrid “customs partnership” which they fear would tie the UK too closely to Brussels. But pro-EU Tories are pushing for May to keep the UK in the single market, claiming she would have cross-party support for such a move.

Writing in the Sun On Sunday, May said she had an “absolute determination to make a success of Brexit, by leaving the single market and customs union and building a new relationship with EU partners that takes back control of our borders, our laws and our money”.

She said the UK was “making good progress towards that goal and we will carry on doing so with resolution in the months ahead”.

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A decision on the government’s preferred customs option has been postponed after May’s Brexit “war cabinet” failed to reach agreement.



The Sunday Telegraph quoted a cabinet source saying it would be “unimaginable for the prime minister to press on with the hybrid model after it has been torn apart by members of her own Brexit committee”.

But pro-EU Tories, seeking to capitalise on lack of agreement in the cabinet and a Lords victory on the customs union, are pushing for May to abandon her Brexit strategy and instead commit to a Norway-style approach within the European Economic Area and European Free Trade Association.

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Such a move would be unacceptable to many Brexit supporters because it would leave the UK expected to accept free movement, although advocates claim May would have some ability to impose conditions. The former Conservative minister Stephen Hammond told the Independent: “If you look at the EEA terms of reference, it is clear there is more leeway to impose restrictions on freedom of movement.”

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, meanwhile, risked unrest within his party over its position on Brexit before a Lords vote.

A Lords amendment which would require the government to negotiate continued membership of the EEA could be put to a vote on Tuesday, but Labour peers have reportedly been told to abstain.



Labour’s Lord Alli, one of the amendment’s sponsors, accused the party leadership of being “paralysed by indecision”.

“This is complete cowardice. There is no point in being in politics to abstain. If you stand in the middle of the road someone is going to knock you over,” he told the Observer.