Senior sources say UK prime minister May has secured private #Brexit concessions from Brussels that will allow her to keep the whole of Britain in a customs union, avoiding a hard border in Northern Ireland thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/r…
EU concession 1: The EU will write an all-UK customs deal into the legally binding withdrawal agreement so an EU-designed “backstop” treating Northern Ireland differently from the UK mainland is not required
EU concession 2: There will be an “exit clause” to convince Eurosceptics the UK will not be under the EU's customs regime for ever
EU concession 3: the non-binding declaration on the future economic relationship will be 50 pages or more when it is published — not the vague, five-page plan many expect
Nine cabinet ministers have already told May they cannot sign up to a deal until the attorney-general, Geoffrey Cox, has given it his backing
Brexiteer cabinet ministers fear they will be bounced into backing May’s scheme without proper scrutiny. They worry that the exit clause from the customs union might contain a provision keeping Northern Ireland in closer alignment with Brussels if the rest of the UK left
A senior Whitehall source is quoted: “The PM will be able to say there’s no more backstop, we’ve got rid of that — success. It is UK-wide — success. There’s an exit mechanism — success. And you’ve got Canada. The small print is that Ireland is f*****.”
And EU concession 4: The EU now accepts that regulatory checks on goods can take place “in the market” by British officials, meaning they can be conducted at factories and shops rather than at the border.
