The UK has offered to drop controversial law-breaking legislation that would allow Boris Johnson to breach the withdrawal agreement (WA) he signed to take the country out of the EU.
That is despite the fact that Johnson is still planning to write the law-breaking clauses back into the Internal Market Bill after their largely symbolic removal by the Lords last month.
But in an apparent olive branch to the EU with separate negotiations on a trade deal going down to the wire, the UK offered to pull the clauses out again if “good progress” continued to be made in separate talks with Brussels on how the WA is put into practice.
Michael Gove was meeting Maros Sefcovic, his opposite number on the joint committee on implementing the WA, on Monday to try to find a way through the row.
A failure to do so would further anger Brussels and potentially blow up negotiations on a trade deal with just weeks left until the end of the transition period on December 31.
That is the date the UK is due to default to economically damaging World Trade Organisation terms for trade with the EU if an agreement cannot be reached.
On a day of high Brexit drama, the UK’s chief negotiator David Frost is also in Brussels for talks with his counterpart Michel Barnier, who has set a Wednesday deadline for a trade deal.
The prime minister will meanwhile speak to European Commission president Ursula Von Der Leyen on the telephone at 4pm on Monday, in what is being seen as a potential make-or-break moment for agreement.
The row over the Internal Market Bill’s law-breaking clauses centre on the special status created in the WA for Northern Ireland, which will follow EU rules in some areas while the rest of the UK will not, in order to maintain an invisible border with the Republic of Ireland.
This would also create a need for exit declarations on goods travelling between Northern Ireland and the UK mainland, which Johnson has previously opposed.
In defiance of this arrangement, the Internal Market Bill would give ministers the power to disapply the need for exit summary declarations for goods moving between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.
It would also give ministers the power to decide what constitutes state subsidies for businesses in Northern Ireland, which also goes against the agreement Johnson signed with the EU.
The UK is meanwhile also offering to drop further law-breaking clauses expected in the taxation bill due for debate this week.
These would give ministers the power alone to decide what goods travelling between Great Britain and Northern Ireland are “at risk” of entering the EU, and so should be subject to checks.
In a statement on the Gove-Sefcovic talks, the UK government said: “Discussions continue to progress and final decisions are expected in the coming days.
“If the solutions being considered in those discussions are agreed, the UK government would be prepared to remove clause 44 of the UK Internal Market Bill, concerning export declarations.
“The UK government would also be prepared to deactivate clauses 45 and 47, concerning state aid, such that they could be used only when consistent with the United Kingdom’s rights and obligations under international law.
“Good progress continues to be made regarding the decision as to which goods are ‘at risk’ of entering the EU market.
“Talks continue this afternoon.
“In the light of those discussions, the government will keep under review the content of the forthcoming taxation bill.”