Michael Gove has literally ripped up Theresa May’s plan for a new customs partnership with the EU. As I say in The Sun today, to the surprise of the officials present, Gove tore the document in two at a meeting on Wednesday night.
After the Brexit inner Cabinet couldn’t reach a consensus on what customs relationship to have with the EU after Brexit, it was split into working groups to look at the two options: the new customs partnership and a streamlined customs arrangement, dubbed MaxFac. Gove was put on the one looking at the new customs partnership—which is Theresa May’s preferred model. It would see the UK collecting tariffs on the EU’s behalf even after Brexit. All imports from the rest of the world charged the EU tariff initially, if the UK charged a lower tariff than the EU for the goods and they stayed in the UK, the company would then receive a refund.
Nearly all Brexiteers, including Gove, see this model as bureaucratic and unworkable and fear it will make Britain a far less attractive country to do a trade deal with.
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