A north-east Conservative MP has predicted that his party will be “screwed” at the next UK election unless Theresa May changes her new Brexit proposals.
Ross Thomson, who represents Aberdeen South, used a podcast for the Brexit Central website to criticise the plans agreed by Cabinet members at Chequers.
Under the proposals, the UK will “maintain a common rulebook for all goods” with the EU, including agricultural products, after Brexit, as well as creating a “combined customs territory” at the border.
But the model has infuriated many Brexit supporters, and led to the resignations of Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Brexit Secretary David Davis.
Mr Thomson said the plan would be the equivalent of being “in the customs union in all but name, in the single market in all but name, and essentially still under the jurisdiction” of the European Court of Justice.
He added that he supported the resignations of Mr Davis and Mr Johnson, and said the Tories were telling businesses that “the rules that have burdened you for year are not going to go anywhere. And we’re going to be aligned to these rules in perpetuity.”
Mr Thomson said: “If we do not make changes to what is being put before us then we are, to be quite frank with you, screwed going forward to a general election.”
