Happy Article 50 day. The day is finally upon us. The Prime Minister has signed the letter which will trigger Article 50 and begin Britain’s exit from the EU. After PMQs, Theresa May will make a statement to MPs while Tim Barrow, the UK’s Brussels diplomat, will hand deliver the letter to Donald Tusk. Once May has formally triggered Article 50, the EU 27 are expected to release a statement in response — promising to approach the Brexit negotiations ‘constructively’.
But before Brexiteers pop open the champagne, Philip Hammond has appeared on the Today programme to give an interview that will bring many back down to earth. The Chancellor — who is regarded by some Leavers as overly pessimistic — struck a serious tone as he insisted that he was ‘excited’ about Brexit. Discussing what the future deal could look like, Hammond ruled out remaining in the customs union but said he was confident an arrangement could still be made that would allow frictionless borders:
Most notably, Hammond appeared to be at loggerheads with the Foreign Secretary during the interview. Asked if Boris Johnson was speaking for the government when he said we will be ‘perfectly okay if there is no deal’, Hammond said he was ‘absolutely confident that we will negotiate a deal’. The Chancellor went on to slap down the idea — from Boris — that Brexit means having your cake and eating it:
NR: You are effectively saying that we will have to compromise – there will have to be a deal. What the deal will be based on is simple isn’t it? Which is that the EU will have to be able to show that the UK will be worse off out than in.
PH: Well, this is a negotiation. I remember the Prime Minister saying right at the beginning of this process in October that when you go into a negotiation there will have to be give and take on both sides. We’ve already made clear that because of the requirements of the British people we will not be full members of the single market, or a full member of the customs union. The fact that we have set that out tells our EU partners that we understand that we cannot cherry pick, that we cannot have our cake and eat it.
Hammond may well be smart to suggest publicly that Britain can’t have it all in the negotiations. If both sides feel as though they can claim they have won, it will make the chance of a good deal more likely. But doing so by undermining a colleague is hardly a recipe for good government.
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