Brexit: Liz Truss seeks Brexit reset in country house talks

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is seeking to reset relations with the EU as she takes over post-Brexit talks from Lord Frost.

The subject is the same but the setting, rather different. Liz Truss is pulling out all the stops for the EU's Maros Šefčovič, as they meet for their first face-to-face encounter on Thursday to discuss the Northern Ireland Protocol.

She's invited him to Chevening, a 115-room grace-and-favour country mansion in Kent, that she shares the use of with deputy PM Dominic Raab, for an overnight stay.

The grounds boast a walled kitchen garden, lake and maze. Dinner will consist of Scottish smoked salmon, Welsh lamb and Kent apple pie.

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Previously, Mr Šefčovič and former Brexit Minister Lord Frost would shuttle between Brussels and London for relatively quick Friday catch-ups.

Then the Covid situation deteriorated and their talks were downgraded to virtual chats.

But Ms Truss, the UK's new lead negotiator, has markedly dumped that old format, for now.

The idea to invite the European Commission vice-president to Chevening was, I'm told, absolutely her own.

"Liz wants this to be a reset moment," said a Foreign Office source. "Not in terms of fundamental principles but in terms of tone and rhythm."

Liz Truss at Chevening with the foreign ministers of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia last year

Nevertheless, those fundamental principles remain important.

The UK wants no checks on products arriving from Great Britain that are destined to stay in Northern Ireland. The EU has offered to ease checks, but not eliminate them.

The UK wants to remove the European Court of Justice from its oversight role of the treaty. The EU says that's not possible, legally or politically, given the application of single market rules in Northern Ireland.

The UK wants greater freedom on subsidy control and tax for Northern Ireland but such discussions with the EU have been described as "limited".

The main area of progress last year was medicines supply, with the European Commission going ahead unilaterally with changing its own laws.

The UK tentatively welcomed this step but has refused to fully endorse it, insisting it needed to see more detail.

Nevertheless, as Christmas drew near, the UK was showing signs it was softening its stance in some areas.

'Frosty the No-Man'

Lord Frost then resigned, leaving Brussels in a fairly festive mood; one diplomat gleefully describing the departing Brexit minister as "Frosty the No Man."

While he wasn't always liked in Brussels, for what was seen as a combative style, Lord Frost did carry the trust of many Brexit-supporting Tory MPs.

Some of those MPs are more wary of Liz Truss; a woman who supported Remain but has since insisted she'd now vote Leave.

Her de-facto deputy, Chris Heaton-Harris, is however regarded as more of a true believer.

Lord Frost resigned his position last year over "concerns about the current direction of travel"

Speaking to Leave-backing Tories on the night it was announced Liz Truss would take on the negotiations, hopes were voiced that she'd have less to do with the talks and Mr Heaton-Harris more.

One senior Conservative thinks Mr Heaton-Harris has actually been recruited in order to persuade the party to accept concessions.

"He can sell a compromise to some of the Spartans."

'A landing zone'

Be in no doubt, as negotiations resume, Liz Truss isn't one to take a backseat.

Her allies insist she wants to have the direct relationship with Maros Šefčovič.

And that getting the protocol on a sustainable footing is a personal, top priority.

She's expected to bring forward what have been described as new, "high level", proposals.

Then it's hoped intensive official talks will get going.

"Liz thinks a landing zone is possible," according to the Foreign Office source.

"She wants the focus to move towards what we can do in practical terms to solve the problems on the ground."

But there are mixed messages here.

'New promotion?'

On the one hand there's now a clear suggestion that the UK wants to emphasise it's taking a pragmatic approach rather than a rigid, theological one.

Yet her recent piece in the Sunday Telegraph, where Liz Truss echoed Frostian positions, led some in Brussels to believe that the foreign secretary was less inclined to find practical solutions and more eager to please a certain wing of her party.

One EU diplomat knowingly joked, "Is she gearing up for a new promotion?"

Liz Truss is talked about, along with Rishi Sunak, as a main contender in any leadership race to succeed Boris Johnson.

And the persistent warning that the UK could trigger Article 16 if an agreement can't be reached remains on the table.

That would amount to suspending parts of the protocol.

The credibility of that warning has been dented after it was waved about a lot last year but never deployed.

Westminster sources say it was the Treasury who suddenly "woke up" and insisted on dialling down the threats.

Some EU politicians doubt whether Boris Johnson has the strength to enter into any resulting 'trade war'

Now some EU politicians seriously doubt that a beleaguered Boris Johnson has the strength or inclination to enter into any resulting 'trade war'.

Having said that, they're never quite sure what might come out of Westminster.

Regardless, Liz Truss is trying to show she's ready to roll up her sleeves.

She may be brimming with confidence and a 'can-do' attitude but this is a hard task.

The foreign secretary has to get the EU to say yes to things it's adamant it can't say yes to.

Or try and sell a compromise that some Brexit-supporting Tories and unionists in Northern Ireland may well be unable to stomach.

Poisoned chalice

It's worth noting, Liz Truss does come at this all from a different angle to Lord Frost.

She's a foreign secretary who wants to take a leading role in tackling threats such as the build-up of Russian troops on the Ukraine border.

She has a wider stake in improving relations with the EU.

There's a theory that the foreign secretary has been handed something of a poisoned chalice; a political conundrum that can't be solved.

"The UK has raised the flagpole on the Northern Ireland Protocol as some kind of totemic issue," Irish MEP Billy Kelleher told me. "And now it doesn't know how to bring it down again."

Maybe that maze at Chevening will come in handy.

Liz Truss and Maros Šefčovič may need all the inspiration they can for finding ways out of thorny problems.