UK prime minister Theresa May is set to meet ministers later on Thursday in an attempt to resolve a row over plans for a customs arrangement with the EU after Brexit.
Mrs May is proposing to temporarily tie the UK into existing EU customs rules if a permanent deal is not struck before the UK leaves the bloc.
However, Downing Street’s plans for a “temporary customs arrangement”, which were due to be published on Thursday, have faced serious opposition from a leading member of the cabinet, Brexit secretary David Davis.
Mr Davis, the face of the British Brexit negotiating team in Brussels, and other leading Brexiteers are unhappy that the arrangement allows for the possibility that the UK could remain tied to EU rules for an indefinite period after March 2019.
Reports in the British press on Thursday said Mr Davis was prepared to resign over the issue. Such a resignation would be disastrous for Mrs May, whose fragile government is without a parliamentary majority.
Former Brexit minister David Jones told BBC Radio 4’s Today show that continuing with the negotiations without David Davis would be “deeply upsetting and deeply dangerous for the country and David Davis needs to stay where he is”.
Mr Jones said the proposal for an open-ended customs arrangement “would just not be acceptable to the mass of the Conservative Party”.
Mrs May is believed to have met Mr Davis by himself on Thursday meeting ahead of a planned visit to the G7 in Canada to try and allay his concerns.
The customs union, which allows trade without tariffs for all countries in the EU, has been a major sticking point for the UK government in its Brexit negotiations.
Mrs May has said the UK will leave the customs union after Brexit but the government has struggled to come up with an alternative arrangement, which is acceptable to the EU to avoid the need for border checks between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
The EU proposed keeping Northern Ireland in the customs union but this was rejected by the government as well as Northern Irish party the DUP, which is holding together Mrs May’s minority government.
The latest so-called “backstop” option would see the whole of the UK aligned to the EU’s customs union temporarily after the 21-month transition period ends in December 2020. The plan, which would see the UK setting its tariffs at the same rates as the EU, would allow the government to sign and implement trade deals.
Downing Street said the backstop plan was unlikely to be needed but this has not allayed the concerns of pro-Brexit Conservative politicians, who want a clear end date for the proposal.