Mrs May challenged critics including Boris Johnson, foreign secretary, to back the plan for a “UK-EU free trade area” in a confrontation seen by senior Tories as a decisive moment in the tortuous Brexit process. [...]
Mrs May briefed the media at 6.45pm on Friday that the cabinet had agreed a collective position to create a “UK-EU free trade area which establishes a common rulebook for industrial goods and agricultural products”.
The plan would see Britain commit in a treaty to adopt new EU rules for goods— an approach viewed by some Tories as leaving the UK as “a vassal state”. Parliament could break the treaty, but trigger severe market reprisals from the EU if it did.
Mrs May also announced “a business-friendly customs model” intended to help secure an open Irish border while also allowing Britain to strike its own trade deals around the world. [...]
Mrs May’s team acknowledged that the new Brexit strategy, to be set out in a 120-page white paper next week, might be hard to swallow for Brexiters in Britain but it does not go far enough to satisfy all the demands of Brussels.
But the prime minister believes EU leaders including Germany’s Angela Merkel will give the new plan a fair hearing. “The UK has started to engage with us,” said Michel Barnier, EU Brexit negotiator. “This is welcome but I look forward to further clarity.”
Mrs May’s white paper is expected to contain a number of bitter pills for Eurosceptics, including an acceptance that the European Court of Justice would have a role in overseeing the new common regulatory framework.
Services and financial services, Britain’s strongest export sector, would be covered by a looser framework and would enjoy less access to the EU single market in exchange for more regulatory freedom. [...]
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