Chancellor Philip Hammond and Home Secretary Amber Rudd ‘to team up to push Swiss-style soft Brexit’
THE battle for Brexit has exploded amid claims Philip Hammond and Amber Rudd are teaming up with Whitehall chiefs to back a soft-Brexit based on Switzerland’s relationship with the EU.
In a blistering assault on the “shambolic” exit process so far, the ex-boss of Vote Leave Dominic Cummings warned the Tories risk handing the keys of No10 to Jeremy Corbyn if they choose the “Swiss model”.
The Treasury-backed move would see the UK closely mirror the current relationship it has with the EU’s Single Market and continue to pay large access fees.
It would also require Britain to shadow judgements made by hated EU judges and obey EU regulations forever — prompting Mr Cummings to label it “a disaster.”
Instead Boris Johnson and Michael Gove wish Britain’s future relationship with the EU to look more like the looser free trade deal Canada enjoys with Brussels.
Mr Cummings — who worked with the Cabinet Ministers during the referendum — took to social media to claim Brexit boss David Davis was also on board with Chancellor’s soft-Brexit plan.
But furious allies of David Davis accused Mr Cummings of “performing the dark arts” adding that it was “b-------” to suggest he was siding with the Chancellor and top civil servants.
A Brexit department source said Mr Davis was the “grown up working to deliver what the British people voted for” and insisted they were still looking at “all the options”.
The Swiss-style plan is understood to be backed by senior officials like Civil Service boss Jeremy Heywood and Brexit supremo Olly Robbins, as well as Home Secretary Amber Rudd.
And an ally of Mr Johnson acknowledged the ongoing Cabinet row over it was one of the “driving reasons” behind the Foreign Secretary’s decision to speak out with his incendiary 4,000 word intervention about Brexit at the weekend.
Quizzed on the bitter dispute in Canada, Theresa May said she did not “recognise the simple binary approach” between the Swiss and Canadian models.
The PM added: “I’ve always said we are not looking to take a model off the shelve based on a relationship that currently exists because of the unique position the UK is in.”
But it is expected Mrs May will have to give more detail about her favoured outcome at her big speech in Italy on Friday.
