Two leading Conservative MPs have launched a bid to make Theresa May keep the UK in a customs union with the European Union, as the prime minister faces cabinet and party splits over the issue.
Anna Soubry, a former business minister, and Ken Clarke, the former chancellor, said they would try to get cross-party support for keeping the UK’s current customs arrangements with the EU, in a clear challenge to May’s authority.
They have a strong chance of causing an embarrassing government defeat if Jeremy Corbyn’s frontbench supports their amendments to two trade bills when they are debated in the House of Commons before the end of February.
It is understood Labour is not ruling out backing the Tory rebels, who already have the support of a number of pro-EU Labour backbenchers. Soubry said it was part of “building a Brexit consensus inside and outside parliament”.
May is facing growing pressure as she refuses to make clear whether she would support a permanent custom union relationship at the end of a transitional period in late 2020.
The issue has become a dividing line between supporters of a hard Brexit, who believe it would limit sovereignty and stop the UK striking deals with non-EU countries, and supporters of a soft Brexit, who want to keep Britain’s trading ties with the EU as close as possible.
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