Countdown to Brexit
Johnson says he is looking at ‘abundant
By Christopher Hope
CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
BORIS JOHNSON wants to replace the
Northern Ireland backstop with new
alternative arrangements including
mobile examinations on livestock and
crops, trusted trader schemes and elec-
tronic customs clearance checks.
The Prime Minister said ahead of
talks with Angela Merkel that he was
looking at measures proposed in a de-
tailed 270-page report drawn up by
Greg Hands, a former Tory minister,
and Nicky Morgan, the Digital, Cul-
ture, Media and Sport Secretary.
Mr Johnson has made the removal of
the backstop – which will keep the UK
in a customs union and the single mar-
ket after Brexit until a solution is found
to prevent a hard border – a central
part of his plans to take the UK out of
the EU by Oct 31.
Mr Johnson said: “We think that
there are ways of protecting the
integrity of the EU single market with-
out having checks of that kind at the
border.”
In a swipe at his predecessor inNo 10, Mr Johnson, questioned why dif-
ferent ideas for the backstop had not
been “very actively proposed” when
Theresa May was prime minister.
He said: “There are abundant solu-
tions which are proffered, which have
already been discussed, I don’t think to
be fair they have been very actively
proposed over the last three years by
the British Government.
“Now is the moment – the onus is on
us to produce those solutions, those
ideas to show how we can address the
issue of the Northern Irish border – and
that is what we want to do.”
He added: “We do think that there
are alternative arrangements that
could readily be used to address theproblem of frictionless trade at the
Northern Irish border. Whether it is
trusted trader schemes or electronic
pre-clearing, all of that type of solution
and more besides is what we will be
wanting to discuss.”
Mr Johnson said that Mr Hands’ and
Ms Morgan’s “excellent report” – titled
Alternative Arrangements for the IrishBorder, published on July 18 – set out
“the kind of alternative arrangements
that could be contemplated”.
In a joint foreword, the two Tory MPs
declared that they had “illuminated a
clear path to a negotiated Brexit; it is
now up to the UK and EU to walk down
it together before it is too late”.
The report said that these new
“working alternative arrangements
should be fully up and running
within three years” by harnessing “ex-
isting technologies and customs best
practice”.
It concluded that a “one size fits all
solution should be avoided” adding
that “instead people and traders should
be given the maximum possible choiceof options”. New “enhanced economic
zones” would be set up over borders to
offer “potentially valuable solutions
which respect the realities of border
and cross-border communities”.
“A multi-tier trusted trader pro-
gramme for large and medium sized
companies should be introduced, with
exemptions for the smallest compa-
nies”, the report, which was drawn up
with City lawyers, said.
Checks for food and livestock – so
called “sanitary and phytosanitary
(SPS) checks” – would “be carried out
by mobile units away from the border”,
it said.
The report also warned that “new
technology had a role to support pol-PM suggests trusted trader
status and electronic checks
as he considers 270-page
report on possible schemes
Leo Varadkar has
warned that a return
to a hard border in
Ireland could lead to
violence reminiscent
of the Troubles-eraW
here The Telegraph sketch
leads, Downing Street follows.
Six months ago, in this very
column, I proposed a radical but
eminently reasonable solution to the
problem of Brexit. It was this:
Germany, France and the 25 other
nations should quit the EU, and
become part of the UK instead.
At last, a plan to satisfy everyone. It
would suit Leavers, because all laws
would be made in Westminster and
immigration figures would be slashed
(as all Poles, Bulgarians, and anyone
else entering Britain from the
Continent, would now be British, and
therefore not immigrants). It would
suit Remainers too, because they
would get to live in a vast centralised
superstate (the newly expanded UK)
boasting its own Army (the British one)
and a single currency (the pound).
Trade could continue as at present,
and there’d be no hard border with
Ireland. Foolproof.
With characteristic stubbornness,
Theresa May ignored me. I was
pleasantly surprised, therefore, to read
in The Sun that the new occupants of
No 10 are keen to try my proposal.
“The Sun,” I read, “has learnt that
Boris Johnson is ready to propose a
new bilateral deal between London
and Dublin ... Under the new idea,
Ireland would win a special
dispensation from Brussels to diverge
from EU rules temporarily so it can
stay aligned with the UK.” In effect:
leave the EU, and join the UK.
My only fear is that The Sun may
have got its wires crossed. Yesterday,
Mr Johnson gave a press conference
with Angela Merkel. And strangely, he
didn’t mention the plan once.
Mrs Merkel informed Mr Johnson
he had “30 days” to solve the Irish
border problem.
Mr Johnson didn’t look at all fazed.
He beamed away breezily, as if he
hadn’t a care in the world, and even
made a joke at the expense of his host.
“We in the UK want a deal, and I
believe we can get one,” he blared.
“Wir schaffen das, as I believe the
phrase is!”
Wir schaffen das (“We can do it”)
was what Mrs Merkel said in 2015 after
inviting one million refugees to live in
Germany. Critics have mocked her
with the phrase ever since.
At the end, Mr Johnson insisted he
had “abundant” solutions for the Irish
border. After mumbling something
about “trusted trader schemes or
electronic pre-clearing”, he promised
there was “more besides”, but
tantalisingly did not elaborate.
Perhaps he was saving the other ideas
up for his private meeting with Mrs
Merkel. I do hope he suggested mine.
At last! A PM
who has come
around to my
way of thinking
Sketch
By Michael Deacon
h
UK has 30,000 more European
migrants than were recorded
By Charles Hymas
HOME AFFAIRS EDITORNET migration from the EU into the UK
has been officially underestimated by
16 per cent for more than a decade.
The measure, produced every three
months by the Office for National Sta-
tistics (ONS), is the benchmark for pol-
icy making on migration. Health,
school and local council officials also
use the data to plan services.
Almost 30,000 more migrants had
come from the EU8 countries, which
include Poland, over a year than previ-
ously estimated – 207,000 rather than
178,000 as previously thought.
By contrast, the ONS overestimated
net migration from outside the EU by
around 13 per cent. The revised figure
was 172,000, down from 197,000.
Quarterly immigration figures, to be
published today, have been down-
graded to “experimental statistics.”
The problems stem from the Inter-
national Passenger Survey, based on
asking 800,000 people a year about
how long they plan to stay in the UK.
EU migrants are highly mobile and
their plans change.
Not all ports all the time are covered,and the sample works is just over 1 per
cent of Heathrow’s annual traffic of
78 million people.
The ONS said a more robust system,
which would draw on government data
including the tax returns and benefits
of migrants, health and education data,
should be in place next year.
Iain Bell, deputy national statisti-
cian, said: “[The ONS has] been making
use of all available data to get a richer
and deeper understanding of migra-tion as a priority since September 2017.”
However, there were clearly still
“limitations” in the way the data was
being assessed, he said.
Madeleine Sumption, director of the
Migration Observatory at the Univer-
sity of Oxford, said: “We have been
pointing out for a while that something
wasn’t quite right in the net migrationstatistics, and that the comparison of
EU versus non-EU net migration did
not seem plausible.”
The disparity was significant, she
added, because “for the past nine years
the UK policy debate has been fixated
on a single data source, which couldn’t
bear the load” of interpretation being
placed on it.
“Whether the question is how to
meet the net migration target or what
to do about international students, the
truth is that the data were simply not
robust enough to be picked apart in
such detail,” Ms Sumption said.
“The quarterly drumbeat of migra-
tion statistics that has become a feature
of the UK migration debate arguably
over-dramatised small changes in fig-
ures that were always quite uncertain.”
Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister,
and Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, are
preparing to revamp Britain’s post-
Brexit immigration system by intro-
ducing points based on skills and the
country’s economic needs.
Mr Johnson has distanced himself
from Theresa May’s target of reducing
immigration below 100,000, saying
that he would “not be playing the num-
bers game”.Corbyn invites senior MPs from
all parties to unity meeting
By Christopher Hope
JEREMY CORBYN has invited senior
politicians including several Conserva-
tive MPs to a meeting to discuss avert-
ing a no-deal Brexit next week.
The news came as a senior Tory
Brexiteer warned Boris Johnson that
removing the Northern Ireland back-
stop from Britain’s Brexit deal will not
be enough to win the support of hard-
line Eurosceptic Tory MPs.
In the letter, Mr Corbyn said: “The
country is heading into a constitutional
and political storm, so it is vital that we
meet urgently, before Parliament re-
turns.
“The chaos and dislocation of Boris
Johnson’s no-deal Brexit is real and
threatening, as the Government’s
leaked Operation Yellowhammer dos-
sier makes crystal clear. That’s why we
must do everything we can to stop it.”
Ian Blackford, the SNP Westminster
leader; Liberal Democrat leader Jo
Swinson; Liz Saville Roberts, the Com-
mons Plaid Cymru leader; Green Party
MP Caroline Lucas; and Anna Soubry,
the Change UK leader, have been in-
vited. Remain-backing Tory MPs Guto
Bebb, Dominic Grieve, Sir Oliver
Letwin and Caroline Spelman are also
copied in, as is Nick Boles, the former
Conservative minister who resigned
the party whip in opposition to the
Government’s approach to Brexit.
Mr Corbyn called the meeting –
scheduled to take place next Tuesday
at 12pm – despite a lukewarm response
to suggestions of cross-party coopera-
tion to prevent a no-deal exit last week.
Last night Ms Swinson accepted Mr
Corbyn’s offer to meet, saying: “We
must focus on workable options thatcan actually stop no-deal Brexit, be-
cause we do not have time to waste. If
Jeremy Corbyn truly wants to stop no-
deal, then he must be open to options
other than his plan to become prime
minister and I look forward to hearing
about the different options he is willing
to explore.”
Last week, he called for the parties to
support his call for vote of no confi-
dence in the Government in autumn
after which he would lead a “time-lim-
ited” caretaker government that
would extend Article 50 and call an
election.
James Cleverley, the Conservative
Party chairman, accused Mr Corbyn of
trying to “dither and delay” Brexit. Mr
Cleverly said: “Jeremy Corbyn will do
all he can to stop delivering on the ref-
erendum result.”
Mr Blackford said: “All options must
be on the table. The SNP stands ready
to pursue every avenue, including
passing legislation to block no-deal and
a vote of no confidence in the Tory gov-
ernment.”
He instead suggested senior Con-
servative and Labour backbenchers
Ken Clarke and Harriet Harman could
take the helm.Jeremy Corbyn’s invitation has been
accepted by Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson207,
Number of migrants now thought to have
come from the EU8 countries, which
include Poland, rather than 178,4 **^ Thursday 22 August 2019 The Daily Telegraph
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