Prime Minister Theresa May will make a speech next Friday on Britain's relationship with the EU following Brexit after her cabinet agreed a plan at a marathon meeting, her spokesman said. One minister who was not present said they had agreed Britain would seek to align itself with European Union rules in certain sectors of the economy, but will retain the right to diverge.
May is under pressure to set out more details of her position before talks get underway on the future partnership in April, with Brussels warning Britain cannot have everything it wants. EU President Donald Tusk will visit London for talks with the prime minister the day before her speech.
May gathered around a dozen of her senior Cabinet colleagues for eight hours of talks at her country retreat Chequers on Thursday, in a bid to thrash out their considerable differences. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who has called for a clean break with Brussels, and Finance Minister Philip Hammond, who favours closer ties, were among those present.
"It was a very positive meeting and a step forward, agreeing a basis of the prime minister's speech on our future relationship" on Friday, the spokesman said. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who did not attend the gathering, said Britain would not be part of a customs union with the EU because it wanted to be able to agree trade deals beyond the bloc.
"It's one way of getting frictionless trade but it's not the only way," he told BBC radio. He acknowledged "divergent views" among ministers, but said: "The central common understanding is that there will be areas and sectors of industry where we agree to align our regulations with European regulations.
"The automotive industry is perhaps an obvious example because of supply chains that are integrated. "But it will be on a voluntary basis, we will as a sovereign power have the right to choose to diverge, and what we won't be doing is accepting changes in rules because the EU unilaterally chooses to make those changes."
The full Cabinet will discuss the plans, likely at their regular weekly meeting on Tuesday, before May makes her speech. The address is expected to take place somewhere in Britain, after recent big Brexit speeches in Munich, Germany, and Florence in Italy.
A few days before, on Monday, opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is expected to set out his party's vision for Brexit, with growing speculation he could call for maintaining some kind of customs union with the EU. Any deal agreed with Brussels would have to be passed by the House of Commons, where May's Conservatives have only a slender majority.
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