New 'anti-Brexit' party to be launched

James Chapman, who formerly worked for David Davis but has now become an outspoken critic of Brexit on social media, says “I did my best to make Brexit work for a year – and it won’t. There is no upside and it is clear that every sector of our economy will suffer for decades to come. Project Fear is Project Fact.”

A party to be called the Democrats will be launched during a ‘People’s March for Europe’ being planned in London on September 9.

Mr Chapman, a former political editor at the Daily Mail, said: "The march on parliament will be for members of all parties and none - but I will be announcing my intention to lead a new party, the Democrats, which will reverse Brexit with no second referendum.

"It's time for all of those with consciences to put nation before country and make sure we are Great Britain once again.”

This comes as the government has released a new ‘position paper’ on the customs union, which has attracted renewed accusations that it wants ‘to have its cake and eat it’.

The customs union means that the same tariffs are applied on all goods entering the EU from outside and the same standards and rules are adhered to allowing goods to move freely throughout the EU.

The UK’s paper says it wants trade to continue with the EU in as ‘frictionless’ a manner as possible, retaining a ‘close association with the EU customs union for a time-limited interim period’ while at the same time being able to sign its own new trade deals with third party countries (which is not possible while a full member of the customs union).

After this interim period, which would not be expected to last beyond the general election in 2022, the UK would then wish to have in place either a ‘highly streamlined customs arrangement’ with high-tech solutions to minimise the extra complications at ports which would result from its ‘third country’ status to the EU, or a ‘new customs partnership with the EU’ whereby the UK might ‘mirror the EU’s requirements for imports from the rest of the world’ so as to ‘remove the need for a UK-EU customs border’.

The position paper also refers to Northern Ireland, saying that it is vital to avoid the need for a ‘hard’ border so that ‘trade and everyday movements across the land border’ are not affected.

The European Parliament’s chief Brexit coordinator Guy Verfhofstadt said in a Facebook post: “[This] seems to suggest that it is possible to be in and out of the customs union at the same time. Moreover, that an ‘invisible border’ between Ireland and Northern Ireland is feasible. I fear this is all mere fantasy.”

A former EU trade commissioner, Karel de Gucht, told Radio 4 the proposals were “very problematic”.

He said the EU would probably only accept retaining the status quo on customs for several years if the UK continued to pay contributions, remained under the authority of the European Court of Justice, and did not sign new trade deals.

A spokesman for the EU said they would ‘take note’ of the proposals, but they would only be addressed once ‘sufficient progress’ was made on the exit arrangements, such as expat rights and the bill.

He added: “As [EU chief negotiator] Michel Barnier has said on several occasions, ‘frictionless trade’ is not possible outside the single market and customs union.”