Cabinet minister warns ‘Plan C’ is ‘going nowhere’ despite hope it can unite the Tory Party as Germany and Ireland dismiss the idea to replace the Irish border backstop with technology
Theresa May pictured at PMQs on Wednesday has ordered officials to test the workability of a Plan C for Brexit hatched by a group of Leave and Remain Tories
A Cabinet minister warned today the so-called Plan C for Brexit is ‘going nowhere’ despite hopes it could reunite the Tory party.
The warning came as Germany warned the EU would stay ‘really, really strong’ on the Irish border backstop and Ireland dismissed the ideas out of hand.
Plan C – dubbed the Malthouse Compromise after Housing Minster Kit Malthouse brought together Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg and Remainer Nicky Morgan.
Prime Minister Theresa May met the MPs behind the plan yesterday
Under the proposals, the current backstop based on the EU’s customs union rules, would be scrapped entirely, removing a major block to the deal passing.
The group say if the EU refuses, Mrs May should then demand a shrunken deal where Britain pays the EU for a three-year transition before trading on basic World Trade Organisation terms – effectively delaying a no deal hard Brexit until 2022.
But one Cabinet minister told MailOnline ‘Plan C’ was ‘going nowhere’.
They said: ‘We were nice about it to get the ERG onside for the votes. But it is basically going nowhere.
‘Nobody can explain why it is any different from ‘managed no deal’, which was never going to work.
‘It’s a mystery why anyone on the softer side of the argument is having anything to do with it.’
The Irish Government’s Europe Minister, Helen McEntee, said Dublin would ‘absolutely not’ accept the reopening of the UK’s Withdrawal Agreement.
Despite the Commons voting for an ‘alternative arrangement’ to replace the backstop, Ms McEntee told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘We are 72 hours on and not only do we not have any proposals, but your own secretaries have admitted that they don’t have any and that there is no solution here.’
