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Samuel Lowe, a trade researcher at the Centre for European Reform, said that Britain would need to ask for the EU’s help to get all trade partners on board for the transitional plan. “The UK is simply not powerful enough to make such demands on its own,” he said. If Brussels was going to assist London in convincing trade partners, this would come at a cost, he said: “This gives the EU some good leverage.”

Sam Lowe, a trade expert at the Centre for European Reform, said that Mrs May’s call for British rules to stay “substantially” similar to those of the EU made a US deal harder. “Theresa May’s speech suggests that a US-UK deal is not a priority for her. She wants to stay closely aligned with the EU and it will be for future parliaments to diverge.”

Rees-Mogg stood by his claim that in drawing up its Brexit plans, the Treasury was trying to influence the argument. He also said that Charles Grant, head of the Centre for European Reform, had been given improper briefings. “He is getting private briefings from the Treasury against government policy,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today. “This is very serious. It is not for officials to invent policy. With the referendum and with the EU, the Treasury has gone back to making forecasts. It was politically advantageous in the past. It is the same for them now. I do think they are fiddling the figures.”Grant said it was perfectly normal for officials to talk to think-tanks. “The Treasury cares about economics so it is naturally pushing for the sorts of Brexit that minimise the economic damage,” he said.

Rees-Mogg suggested officials working in the UK Treasury were seeking to keep the country in the EU customs union, and asked Brexit Minister Steve Baker on Thursday to confirm the allegation based on an off-the-record conversation with think tanker Charles Grant, who heads the Centre for European Reform. Baker on Friday apologized to MPs for saying Rees-Mogg’s account of the remarks was “essentially correct.” Speaking to BBC on Saturday, Rees-Mogg stood by his original claim, saying: “With the referendum and with the EU the Treasury has gone back to making forecasts. It was politically advantageous for them in the past. It is the same now … So yes, I do think they are fiddling the figures.”

“I do think they’re fiddling the figures,” Jacob Rees-Mogg MP told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme, after he was accused of suggesting this in the House of Commons without evidence.

 Host Nick Robinson had put it to Rees Mogg that his accusation was “not the behaviour of a man who wishes to lead this country”, adding the “eccentric backbencher” was now being talked about as a future prime minister.

Speaking in the Commons this morning, Mr Baker told MPs: "I wish to correct the record of my answer yesterday to (Mr Rees-Mogg). He is aware of this point of order. "Yesterday I answered a question based on my honest recollection of conversation. As I explained yesterday, I considered what I understood the suggestion being put to me as implausible because of the long-standing and well regarded impartiality of the civil service.
"The audio of that conversation is now available and I'm glad the record stands corrected.

Mr Baker told MPs he had heard the claim that civil servants were trying to fix a soft Brexit from Charles Grant, head of the influential Centre for European Reform think tank, at a lunch at the Conservative Party conference in 2017. But a recording of the exchange emerged which contradicted his claims, in which Mr Grant said the Treasury was “determined” to stay in the customs union but nothing further.

Backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg, a hardline Brexiteer, had sparked the row when he pressed the minister about claims made by Charles Grant, of the Centre For European Reform think-tank. Baker had said he was “sorry to say” Rees-Mogg’s account was “essentially correct”.
“At the time I considered it implausible, because my direct experience is that civil servants are extraordinarily careful to uphold the impartiality of the Civil Service,” he added.