THERESA May’s dysfunctional cabinet have spent the weekend arguing about Europe, again, as the Prime Minister seemed to be stepping back from the damage of a hard Brexit.
Reports over the weekend suggested May and her Brexit Minister David Davis were now forming a “clique” pushing for a so-called “grey Brexit”, somewhere in between the hard of completely withdrawing from the single market, and the soft of paying for access to favourable trading conditions and allowing free movement of people.
Davis had told Parliament on Thursday that the government would not rule out paying into the EU in return for access to European markets. Those comments were backed by the PM and Chancellor Philip Hammond, but reportedly came as a surprise to foreign secretary Boris Johnson and Brexit trade minister Liam Fox. Yesterday Johnson took to the Sunday morning political programmes to insist that there would no paying large sums of money to the EU in return for trading rights.
“That is obviously something that David Davis is considering but it doesn’t mean a decision has been taken … I am not going to get involved in the minutiae of our negotiating position before we trigger Article 50,” he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.
However, he did say the UK could pay in for some elements of “European cooperation” such as the Erasmus student exchange programme and Horizon, the EU programme for research and innovation.
These, he said, would not be “large” payments.
Johnson also stood by claims made during the referendum campaign that leaving the EU would see vast sums of money returned to the UK.
Johnson and other Brexiteers had travelled the country in a red bus emblazoned with a pledge to return £350 million a week to spend on the NHS.
“I do believe that as a result of Brexit we will be able to take back control of the money that we currently give to Brussels,” he said.
“Very large sums of money will be coming back to this country which will be capable of being spent on priorities such as the NHS. That will be one of the outcomes of Brexit.”
On migration, the foreign secretary said he would “be in favour of a reduction but you can still have a very open and dynamic economy with immigration running at a reasonable level. That’s what we want to see,” he said.
He also said student numbers should be dropped from the official migration figures, a measure the Prime Minister has specifically ruled out.
The SNP’s Stuart McMillan MSP said: “It’s really deeply disturbing that the foreign secretary’s plan for taking the UK out of the EU is exactly the same as the one we saw scribbled on a piece of note paper outside Downing Street this week – ‘have cake and eat it’.
“But European leaders have already made it abundantly clear to Theresa May’s government that simply isn’t going to happen. Either Boris Johnson is blissfully ignoring reality or he simply doesn’t understand how the single market works.”
Meanwhile, May has sent a memo to ministers and government officials telling them to stop leaking information about Brexit to journalists.
Ironically, that demand was leaked to a national newspaper.
Top civil servant, Sir Jeremy Heywood, wrote to permanent secretaries in government departments calling for the “corrosive leaks” to end.
“Anyone found to have leaked sensitive information will be dismissed, even where there is no compromise of national security,” he said.
Heywood also wrote: “The Prime Minister has directed that we urgently tighten security processes and improve our response to leaks.
“She has instructed that we begin this work immediately and expects to see rapid and visible improvement.
“Ministers, permanent secretaries and senior officials set the tone in an organisation and no amount of process will make up for an environment where leaks are accepted.
“If leaders think they are the necessary cost of open ways of working they are mistaken.”
Former Labour cabinet minister turned celebrity hoofer Ed Balls said the memo reminded him of the dying days of Gordon Brown’s premiership.
“I have seen these memos in the past – they happen when a prime minister is losing grip … the Prime Minister needs to show leadership,” he said on ITV’s Peston on Sunday.
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