While Johnson was delivering his speech May was along the corridor in the Houses of Parliament facing a grilling from a liaison committee, made up of every chair of every House of Commons select committee.
Advertisement
Sources close to Mr Johnson said he had received permission from speaker John Bercow to make the brief statement, amid intense speculation that he may use it to attack Theresa May’s approach to Brexit.
International Trade Secretary Liam Fox warned that countries with close business links to the United Kingdom – such as Ireland – would suffer a hit of up to 8% of GDP from a failure to reach a Brexit agreement.
The statement will still add to the challenges of a gruelling day for the prime minister, who is already facing a potentially hard session of PMQs, followed by a grilling by senior MPs on Westminster’s Liaison Committee.
He cited concerns raised by himself and former Brexit secretary David Davis, saying: “When I and other colleagues. proposed further technical solutions to make customs and regulatory checks remotely, those proposals were never properly examined, as if such solutions had become intellectually undesirable in the context of the argument”.
Earlier during Prime Minister’s Questions, Mrs May said the final Brexit deal must honour the 2016 referendum result but also be “workable” in terms of protecting jobs and livelihoods.
Britain is set to leave the bloc on March 30, but the two sides want to strike the divorce agreement by late October in order to give parliaments enough time to endorse a deal.
Barnier noted that there were only 13 weeks until EU leaders meet for a summit, by when the European Union and Britain should have finalised a withdrawal agreement. May appointed staunchly pro-Brexit lawmaker Dominic Raab as the country’s new Brexit secretary.
Johnson said the customs plan set out at Chequers was “a fantastical, Heath Robinson customs arrangement”.
“There is now a new secretary of state and we look forward to moving on”, he said. The message to the European Union has to be, “this is the final offer”.
In a letter to his constituents in Shipley, Davies said May’s Brexit plan on trade was unacceptable.
Davis also said that May’s plan “would be a risk at least of delivering a poor outcome”.
Highlighting the fine margins May is dealing with, Tuesday’s victory required the votes of four pro-Brexit Labour opposition lawmakers who backed the government in defiance of their party’s instructions.
The department for worldwide trade said that Britain was always seeking to be part of the medicines framework.
BRITISH Prime Minister Theresa May has had a febrile week fighting off a revolt from within her own Conservative Party and hanging on to her position by the skin of her teeth.
Advertisement
Speaking to the BBC, Raab refused to deny reports the government is planning to stockpile food or use a section of motorway in England as a lorry park to deal with increased border checks if Britain leaves the European Union without a deal. “I’d have to do something I didn’t believe in”, he told the.
