Boris urges Eurosceptic Tories to back Brexit trade deal as full text published

Boris Johnson has appealed to hardline Eurosceptic Tories to back his post-Brexit trade agreement in next week’s 11th-hour vote.

Scrutiny of the UK’s trade deal with the European Union has begun after the full treaty was published on Boxing Day, less than a week before it is due to be implemented on January 1st.

Legal experts and MPs will be poring over the 1,246-page document ahead of the commons vote on Wednesday, when politicians will be recalled from their Christmas break to ratify the text.

The Prime Minister acknowledged to Conservative MPs that ‘the devil is in the detail’ but insisted the deal would stand up to inspection from the European Research Group (ERG) of Brexiteers, who will assemble a panel of lawyers to examine the full agreement in the coming days.

In a message to Tory MPs on Whatsaap he claimed the breakthrough in negotiations on Christmas Eve was a victory and that the deal ‘delivered on every one of our manifesto commitments’.

However, the chief executive of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisation, Barrie Deas, accused Mr Johnson of having ‘bottled it’ on fishing quotas to secure only ‘a fraction of what the UK has a right to under international law’.

Mr Deas said the Prime Minister had ‘sacrificed’ fishing to other priorities, with the subject proving to be an enduring sticking point during negotiations.

‘Lacking legal, moral or political negotiating leverage on fish, the EU made the whole trade deal contingent on a UK surrender on fisheries,’ Mr Deas said.

‘In the end-game, the Prime Minister made the call and caved in on fish, despite the rhetoric and assurances that he would not do what Ted Heath did in 1973.’

The share of fish in British waters that the UK can catch will rise from about half now to two-thirds by the end of the five-and-a-half-year transition.

The Brexit deal covers trade worth about £660 billion and means goods can be sold without tariffs or quotas in the EU market.

But some Tory MPs have already indicated they will be willing to vote against it if they are not satisfied with its terms.

On Saturday, Conservative former Cabinet minister Theresa Villiers told BBC Breakfast: ‘I very much hope this treaty stands up to scrutiny and I hope to be able to support it.

‘But I was elected on a manifesto which promised to get Brexit done so I need to read (the document) before I can work out whether this actually enables us to do that or whether it traps us in the regulatory orbit of the European Union.’

Even if some Tory MPs rebel, the agreement will almost certainly be passed by Parliament, with Labour saying they will support it.

However, the PM is keen to win over the ERG, made up of hardline Conservative MPs who want a clean break from Europe.

In a bid to quash a rebellion the PM told MPs on Whatsaap: ‘I truly believe this is the right deal for the UK and the EU.

‘We have delivered on every one of our manifesto commitments: control of money, borders, laws, fish and all the rest.

‘But even more important, I believe we now have a basis for long-term friendship and partnership with the EU as sovereign equals.’

He added that ‘I know the devil is in the detail’ but the deal will survive ‘ruthless’ scrutiny from the ‘star chamber legal eagles’ – a reference to the panel assembled by the ERG, including veteran Eurosceptic Sir Bill Cash.

The EU’s 27 member states have indicated they will formally back the deal within days. EU ambassadors were briefed on its contents by Michel Barnier, who led Brussels’ negotiating team in the talks with the UK.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he had doubts about the deal but said the alternative of a no-deal would be a worse scenario.

However he is also facing the prospect of a revolt from within his own party after instructing MPs to vote in favour of the deal, with sources telling the Guardian that some frontbenchers were likely to resign.

MPs and peers will be called back to Westminster on December 30 to vote on the deal, but MEPs are not expected to approve it until the new year, meaning it will have to apply provisionally until they give it the green light.

An agreement was reached on Christmas Eve following months of deadlock in the negotiations.

Mr Johnson held a Downing Street news conference to declare the agreement meant ‘taking back control of our laws and our destiny’.

Writing in The Times, Cabinet minister Michael Gove said the deal will create a new ‘special relationship’ – a term usually used to refer to UK-US links – and end the ‘ugly’ politics since the Brexit referendum four years ago.

Officials in Brussels are expected to meet on December 28 to scrutinise the deal.

The European Commission has already announced a £4.5 billion fund to help regions and industries within the bloc which will be hit by the UK’s withdrawal from the single market and customs union. That includes fishing communities who face losing out as the UK takes a greater share of stock in British waters.

French Europe minister Clement Beaune said it was a ‘good agreement’ and stressed the EU had not accepted a deal ‘at all costs’.

Mr Beaune said that British food and industrial products entering the European single market after January 1 will not pay customs duties ‘but will have to meet all our standards’.

‘There is no country in the world that will be subject to as many export rules to us as the UK,’ he told broadcaster Europe 1.

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