Theresa May reportedly slapped down leading Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg at a private briefing for Tory MPs at No 10 yesterday.
The Right-winger suggested that Ireland was bluffing about the need for hard border controls if Britain quits the European Union without a deal. He then predicted that unionists would win any referendum held in the province on the issue. Mrs May replied: “I would not be as confident as you. That’s not a risk I’m prepared to take.”
Nicky Morgan, the former education secretary who chairs the Treasury Committee, said today that the exchange was revealing because it showed how the border issue was proving insoluble. “Reality is catching up with the Brexiteers and the PM made it clear their warm words won’t cut it when dealing with the complexities of Irish politics and international trade arrangements,” she told the Standard.
Mr Rees-Mogg hit back: “Brexiteers have always been awake to the reality that the nation voted to leave, something some others seem quite unable to grasp.”
He said an account of yesterday’s meeting in The Times was “over-written” and the question-and-answer session had been “of a uncontentious and courteous nature”.
A Tory MP who attended the briefings said Mrs May was “a firm supporter of the Union who clearly does not want to take chances with it”.
The “Brexit War Cabinet” was meeting at No 10 today to hear updates from the two working groups set up to try to find a solution to the border deal. A source said neither the “maximum facilitation” idea of using new technology nor the “new customs partnership” has yet been made to work, and that there is no alternative currently on the table.
Cabinet minister David Mundell said the Cabinet was trying to “test proposals to destruction”. He denied the impasse showed the Government was stumped. “I think it is right that the Cabinet do a full analysis, a full detailed look at this issue,” he said.
The Scottish Secretary joined Jeremy Hunt in criticising Boris Johnson for branding the customs partnership “crazy”. He said: “I agree with cabinet collective responsibility.”
Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, said no progress had been made in talks since March.
George Hamilton, Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, raised concerns about the border problem. He told BBC2’s Newsnight: “We wouldn’t want to see anything that looks like physical infrastructure at the border, primarily because we assess that could symbolically become the focus of attention and targeting by violent dissident Republican groups.”
A crisis was looming as the Scottish Parliament threatened to refuse its consent to vital Brexit legislation. Scots are demanding that powers returned from Brussels be handed to Holyrood, not Westminster. But Scottish executive member Mike Russell said “Westminster is trying to subvert that.”
