Theresa May papers over Brexit cracks in cabinet after Boris Johnson's 'tantrum'

The prime minister has said she still has full confidence in the foreign secretary despite his interview

Boris Johnson called one of Theresa May's policy options 'crazy' in an interview (PA)

Theresa May has tried to paper over Brexit cracks in her cabinet after failing to admonish Boris Johnson for calling one of her policy options “crazy”.

Instead the prime minister was forced to say she still has full confidence in the foreign secretary, as she attempts to find a position on future customs relations with the EU that her cabinet can unite on.

One source branded Mr Johnson’s words a “tantrum”, while a Tory MP said his comments about Ms May’s plan for a “customs partnership” with the EU after Brexit amounted to another of his “bursts of misbehaviour”.

Cabinet ministers are yet to settle whether to adopt the partnership model, which Brexiteers claim is too similar to the existing customs union, or a second one that MPs who backed Remain say will mean an Irish hard border.

Ms May is yet to officially declare which of her two options she favours, but her aides have said the partnership model is “intellectually perfect”.

Her official spokesman said the issue was not discussed at Tuesday’s regular meeting of cabinet in 10 Downing Street, which Mr Johnson attended after returning from a visit to the US.

The spokesman also declined to say whether the PM had spoken privately with the foreign secretary about his comments.

But asked whether Ms May continued to have full confidence in Mr Johnson as foreign secretary, the PM’s spokesman said: “Yes.”

He added: “There are two customs models that were put forward by the government last August and most recently outlined in the prime minister’s Mansion House speech which the entire cabinet was signed up to.

“Following last week’s subcommittee meeting, it was agreed that there are unresolved issues in relation to both models and that further work is needed.

“The prime minister asked officials to take forward that work as a priority.”

The partnership plan would see Britain collect tariffs on the EU’s behalf at ports and airports, passing on a share of the money to Brussels – then if the UK sets different tariffs from the EU, traders would claim refunds from HMRC for goods that stay in Britain.

Olly Robbins, Ms May’s Europe adviser, regards the partnership as a means of avoiding a hard border in Ireland, while keeping the UK out of the European customs union.

But Downing Street has been privately warned that the partnership proposal could collapse the government, with the Brexit-backing European Research Group having organised a critical report backed by 60 MPs.

ERG chair Jacob Rees-Mogg, who has previously described the customs partnership as “cretinous”, said Mr Johnson had “hit the nail on the head”.

The second of Ms May’s options, a “streamlined arrangement”, is viewed more favourably by Brexiteers in both the cabinet and on the back benches.

It is known as “maximum facilitation”, or “max fac”, and would see the UK outside any customs union, but with some controls at the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.

Backers say a “trusted trader” scheme and remote monitoring of the border would limit physical infrastructure, but it would still essentially mean a hard border on the island of Ireland, which critics claim this would break the Good Friday Agreement, risking peace in Northern Ireland.

One ministerial aide said the foreign secretary’s words were nothing but a “Johnson tantrum”, while others claimed he was undermining Ms May’s authority.

Conservative former attorney general Dominic Grieve said Mr Johnson’s decision to speak out was “regrettable”, but said he could understand why Ms May was willing to put up with his “outbursts”.

He told BBC Radio 4’s World at One: “I don’t think he is in any way inhibited by normal propriety in government.

“I can well understand that seeing the difficult issues that we are having to confront, which are very divisive, the prime minister should accept these rather extraordinary bursts of misbehaviour by Boris.”

In what was seen as a very public challenge to the prime minister’s stance, Mr Johnson used an interview with the Daily Mail to warn that the customs partnership option would create a “whole new web of bureaucracy”.

The plan would not comply with promises to take back control, and would hamper the UK’s ability to strike trade deals, said the foreign secretary.

“It’s totally untried and would make it very, very difficult to do free trade deals,” he said.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable said: “Yet again this Tory government is demonstrating to the Europeans who are negotiating with them that they are internally divided.”