Europe bid ‘to annex the North with Irish backstop’ – Johnson

BREXIT will be “a total writeoff” unless British Prime Minister Theresa May rips up “disastrous” plans for the Irish Border before she heads to a crucial EU summit this week, according to Boris Johnson.

The former UK foreign secretary says the EU’s “backstop” proposal for Northern Ireland would mean it was “annexed” by Brussels, while Mrs May’s alternative solution would keep the whole of the UK “effectively” in the EU.

Mr Johnson says ministers are “straining at the gnat” of the Border problem while “swallowing the camel of EU membership in all but name”.

Mrs May will attend a twoday EU summit that starts on Wednesday in Salzburg, Austria, where she hopes to make a breakthrough in the Brexit negotiations by selling her Chequers plan directly to fellow leaders.

But even if she manages to convince the other 27 EU leaders to accept Chequers, she must then win the backing of parliament for any deal based on her controversial plan.

Writing in today’s ‘Daily Telegraph,’ Mr Johnson says: “If the Brexit negotiations continue on this path they will end, I am afraid, in a spectacular political car crash…

“If we are to get out of this mess, and get the great British motor back on track, then we need to understand the Irish backstop, and how it is being used to coerce the UK into becoming a vassal state of Brussels.”

He argues that the EU’s “backstop” for Northern Ireland – the arrangement that will be put into place in the absence of any other agreement over the Irish Border – “is little short of an attempt to annex Northern Ireland” because it would keep it within the EU customs union and large parts of its single market.

Mrs May has said no British prime minister could ever accept such a plan, as it would mean a customs border down the Irish Sea, threatening the union of the United Kingdom.

Her alternative is to keep the whole of the UK “effectively in the customs union” and abiding by rules set down in Brussels and enforced by the European Court of Justice, Mr Johnson says.

“If Chequers were adopted,” he suggests, “it would mean that for the first time since 1066 our leaders were deliberately acquiescing in foreign rule”.

“Both versions of the backstop are disastrous... we need to challenge the assumptions of both, or we are heading full throttle for the ditch with a total write-off of Brexit.”

Last week, the DUP backed a proposal put forward by the group of Tory Eurosceptics led by Jacob Rees-Mogg. They argue that a combination of trusted trader schemes, self-assessment and point-ofsale customs checks can avoid the need for a hard Border. (© Daily Telegraph, London)