Peter Mandelson joins Brexiters in attack on May’s EU ‘humiliation’

Britain’s former trade commissioner in Brussels, Lord Mandelson, is making common cause with hardline, anti-EU Tories, saying Theresa May’s latest Brexit blueprint would lead to “national humiliation” and leave the country in a worse position than if it turned its back on the entire European economic system.

In an extraordinary intervention that shows that even the most ardent Remainers in parliament find the plans unacceptable, the Labour peer says the plans would deliver “the polar opposite of taking back control”, and would mean “the EU would ultimately call the shots, not just now but indefinitely”.

Writing in the Observer – as a new Opinium poll shows support for the Tories has haemorraghed and backing for Ukip has soared since the plans were agreed by the cabinet 10 days ago – Mandelson writes: “Britain, in effect, would be entrapped and the more you think through the implications the more the whole thing looks less like a soft Brexit than a national humiliation.

“Not only would it fail to secure all the trade we have presently but it would severely compromise our ability to negotiate future trade agreements with other countries. Inevitably you are drawn to the conclusion that it would be better to be fully in the economic structures of the EU or out of them all together, and if you are in them, better to stay in the EU itself as this provides a seat at the table where the rules are made.”

The comments from Mandelson, who supports a “people’s vote” – another referendum – on a final Brexit deal, are in line with the latest thinking of Remain-minded Labour MPs, whose outright opposition to May’s proposals would appear to kill off any hope the government might have of relying on opposition supporters of a soft Brexit to force her plans through parliament in the autumn.

On Saturday night, the pro-Remain Labour MP Chuka Umunna said there was no way even the most pro-EU Labour supporters of a soft Brexit would back May’s plans. “There is no Labour Remainer who would support May’s Chequers deal or prop up her sorry excuse for a government – full stop,” he said.

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has written to May telling her to change course or risk doing untold damage to the City. Khan said her plans “would open the door to our competitors, who are already actively working to attract UK-based businesses to export jobs to Paris, Frankfurt, Dublin and other secondary financial hubs”.

He added that “under the kind of Brexit that you are offering, the risk is that these would be the tip of the iceberg. While London’s fundamental strengths, as an open, cosmopolitan and global city will always remain, jobs and investment that could have been ours might in future go elsewhere in Europe.”

After a week that saw the resignations of David Davis and Boris Johnson, followed by criticism of May’s handling of Brexit by Donald Trump, the Opinium poll is devastating for the Tories, who face further battles in parliament this week. It shows May’s party has dropped six points to 36% since the last poll five weeks ago, leaving Labour, on 40%, with its biggest lead since shortly after the snap general election last June.

May’s leadership ratings in the survey, taken between Wednesday and Friday last week as the fallout from the Chequers deal became clear, have also plummeted from -8 in June to -24. She is now well behind Jeremy Corbyn who is on -12. She also has the lowest approval rating on her handling of Brexit since Opinium starting polling on the issue. Just 25% currently approve of the way she is handling Brexit, down from 30% last month.

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, the prime minister will make a fresh appeal for the Tory party and the country to get behind her plans, but hints that she is listening to critics.

“I know there are some who have concerns about the common rule book for goods and the customs arrangements which we have proposed will underpin the new UK-EU free trade area. I understand those concerns. But the legacy of Brexit cannot be a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland that unpicks the historic Belfast agreement.”

She adds: “It cannot be the breaking-up of our precious United Kingdom with a border down the Irish Sea. And it cannot be the destruction of integrated supply chains and just-in-time processes on which jobs and livelihoods depend.

“I am yet to see a workable alternative future trading arrangement that would deliver on our commitments to Northern Ireland, preserve the constitutional integrity of the UK and deliver on the result of the referendum.”

May faces further problems in the House of Commons early this week as two Brexit-related bills return to the Commons. There are suggestions that some hardline Tory Brexiters in the European Research Group, led by Jacob Rees-Mogg, could vote against or abstain in votes on the taxation (cross-border trade) bill and the separate trade bill. Were they to join with opposition MPs to prevent either bill having a third reading, the government would be thrown into further chaos over its Brexit planning.

Talks with the EU resume on Monday, and the new Brexit secretary, Dominic Raab, will meet the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, in Brussels for the first time later in the week.

David Davis is expected to make a resignation speech in the Commons on Monday, according to his supporters.