May looks for backing on alternative Brexit backstop amendment

Prime Minister Theresa May looked to set divide her party once again over the Irish backstop in a crucial vote on Tuesday as the retail industry warned of food shortages and higher prices in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

Senior Conservative MP Sir Graham Brady tabled an amendment, to be debated on Tuesday, that calls for the backstop to be replaced with “alternative arrangements”.

May instructed her MPs to support Brady's amendment, setting the scene for another potential deadlock over her withdrawal agreement.

Pro-remain MPs have rallied round a rival amendment tabled by Labour's Yvette Cooper which would rule out a no-deal scenario and delay Britain's scheduled departure date of March 29 by nine months.

The final decision on which amendments go to a vote rest with House of Commons speaker John Bercow. Once he decides and after debate the votes will take place at 1900 GMT.

Meanwhile, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said it feared “significant disruption in the short term as a result if there is no Brexit deal”.

“Our supply chains are closely linked to Europe – nearly one third of the food we eat in the UK comes from the EU. In March the situation is more acute as UK produce is out of season,” the BRC wrote in a letter to MPs.

It was co-signed by the chief executives of Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, Sainsbury, Asda and Morrisons.

“Even if the UK government does not undertake checks on products at the border, there will still be major disruption at Calais as the French government has said it will enforce sanitary and customs checks on exports from the EU, which will lead to long delays.”

The BRC cited government data as indicating that freight trade between the French port of Calais and Dover in the UK could fall by 87% against current levels as a result, reducing “the availability and shelf life of many products in our stores”.

It also questioned the legitimacy of the argument put forward by hard Brexiteers that the UK could simply revert to World Trade Organisation rules in the event of a no-deal departure.

The BRC said food import costs would rise if UK were to revert to WTO Most Favoured Nation status “which could in turn put upward pressure on food prices”.

“The UK could set import tariffs at zero but that would have a devastating impact on our own farmers, a key part of our supply chains,” it added.

In Brussels, the EU's deputy chief negotiator Sabine Weyand said on Monday that there was a high risk of the UK crashing out of the EU without a deal “by accident”.

We need to have a majority that doesn’t just get agreement over hurdle of a meaningful vote by a narrow majority but we need to have a stable majority to ensure the ratification. That’s quite a big challenge. There’s no negotiation between the UK and EU – that’s finished.”