Brexit: Theresa May admits she still has no workable plan for customs rules with EU

Prime minister refuses to set out her preferred customs option – or say it will be ready in time

Theresa May admitted she still lacks a workable plan for trading with the EU after Brexit, as she faced Labour taunts over Boris Johnson branding her proposal “crazy”.

Under pressure from Jeremy Corbyn, the prime minister refused to set out her preferred option for future customs rules – or say it would be ready for 2021, when the transition period is due to finish.

Ms May insisted her “customs partnership” idea was still on the table – despite the Foreign Secretary’s outburst – alongside a “max fac” proposal based on unproven technology.

And she admitted: “Questions have been raised about both of those options and further work continues”.

The acknowledgement comes nine months after the government first set out options for replacing membership of the customs union – and just one month before an EU deadline to agree progress.

Only last week, Ms May had insisted there were a “number of ways” in which both a soft border in Ireland and frictionless trade with the EU could be “delivered”.

In a strong showing, Mr Corbyn noted that Greg Clark, the business secretary, had appeared to admit that neither option would be ready for the end of transition, in December 2020.

“Can the prime minister tell us what is her preferred option and on what date it will be ready to be implemented?” he asked.

But the prime minister ducked the question, arguing it was only in March that it become “possible to have discussions with the European Commission on customs arrangements”.

Instead, she turned her fire on Mr Corbyn, saying: “He has spent an entire career opposing a customs union. Now, when the British people want to come out, he wants to stay in.”

Labour MP David Lammy seized on the admission, tweeting: “PM says ‘further work’ needed on the Govnt’s position on customs union.

“You’ve had 23 months, what on earth have you been doing? Negotiations are an absolute shambles, Foreign Secretary mouthing off all over the place, Cabinet Ministers can’t even agree amongst themselves.”

Earlier, the Labour leader twisted the knife, asking: “Does the prime minister agree with her foreign secretary that the plan for a customs partnership, set out in her Lancaster House speech, is, in fact, crazy?”

And quoted Ken Clarke, the former Conservative Chancellor, when he asked Ms May if she planned to stand up to the “wild right-wing people”.

The prime minister said it was Labour’s Brexit plans that were “crazy” and insisted the UK would leave the customs union.

On Labour's approach, she alleged “They want to go into a customs union with the European Union with no say over trade policy, with Brussels negotiating trade deals in their interest not our own.”

The prime minister also declined to answer Mr Corbyn’s question about when crucial Brexit legislation – on trade and customs – would finally return to the Commons.

The government has slammed on the brakes, facing a growing Tory revolt, prompting warnings that it will not be ready for the continued threat of a “no deal” Brexit.