After the excitement of last week’s Brexit negotiations – which saw Theresa May’s working lunch that didn’t work, the DUP veto the government’s Brexit plans and a last minute Brexit agreement on Friday – today’s statement from the Prime Minister proved a rather tame affair. With Jean-Claude Juncker recommending that the EU Council allow the Brexit talks to now move onto trade, the Prime Minister appeared at the despatch box to try and calm nerves over the contents of that draft agreement.
May told MPs that it has been ‘give and take’ for both the UK and the EU when it came to reaching ‘sufficient progress’. With a number of Tories concerned over the £39bn Brexit bill, ‘full alignment’ solution to the Irish border and the continued role for the ECJ on citizens’ rights, May was keen to stress that ‘nothing is agreed until everything is agreed’:
‘I have always been clear that this was never going to be an easy process. It has required give and take for the UK and the EU to move forwards together. And that is what we have done.
Of course, nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.
But there is, I believe, a new sense of optimism now in the talks and I fully hope and expect that we will confirm the arrangements I have set out today in the European Council later this week.’
Jeremy Corbyn attempted to go on the attack – suggesting that May’s Cabinet is rife with Brexit disagreement. Given that Corbyn’s own team tend to change their own Brexit position on a daily – sometimes hourly – basis, it wasn’t the most effective attack.
Instead, the most revealing part of the session came from the questions from backbench MPs. With Brexiteers nervous that the promise of ‘full alignment’ in order to prevent a hard border in Ireland could lead to a soft Brexit, MPs took the opportunity to seek reassurances from May. Andrew Bridgen stressed that the government would not pay the divorce bill if there was no deal. Iain Duncan Smith congratulated May on the deal before asking for reassurance that the two-year period after Brexit will be an ‘implementation’ period. May said he was right. Sir Edward Leigh praised May’s ‘calm, true grit’ – but then asked her to confirm that the UK would have ‘full regulatory autonomy’ when it leaves the EU. May responded by saying this was the whole point.
While her words appeared to soothe concerns among the Eurosceptic wing of her party, it will worry some of these MPs that both Anna Soubry and Nicky Morgan – serial Remain Tory rebels – praised May’s plan. It will be near impossible to keep both groups on side when May sets out her vision for Britain’s trade relationship with the EU. However, what’s clear from this session is that she is boosted from winning sufficient progress on Friday. As Nick Boles put it, May’s performance is ‘worthy of Geoffrey Boycott’ – the defensive, if at times boring, cricketer who proved hard to get out.
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