Remoaner MPs are trying to sabotage Brexit negotiation
LET us play a game of imagine. Imagine that José Mourinho was told by the FA that he had to hand over his full tactics to the opposition before every game – and that he would not be given the same information from the other team. Or imagine that before D-Day Churchill had sent a telegram to Hitler outlining the full plan.
You can’t imagine it, can you? Both ideas are selfevidently preposterous. I say self-evidently but to the Remoaners that is exactly how things should happen.
They are demanding that prior to the start of any negotiations with the EU we reveal our full hand. Our strategy, our red lines, what we would settle for and how we plan to get there should all be revealed to Brussels in advance.
It is a basic tenet of negotiation that you do not reveal your hand to your negotiating partner. When you buy a house you do not make an offer and then include, in brackets, the real upper limit of what you are willing to pay. But that is exactly what the Remoaners want the Government to do.
On Wednesday Labour MP Hilary Benn was elected by MPs as chairman of the select committee that will scrutinise the Department for Exiting the EU. In his first interview since his appointment he revealed just how determined he is to destroy our chances of a successful negotiation.
HE DID not put it like that of course: “I am very clear that Parliament will want to have a say, both in scrutinising what the negotiating plan is when it is published and taking a view on it.” But the meaning of his words is crystal clear: he wants us to reveal everything before we start negotiations with the rest of the EU.
He continued: “Parliament is entitled to say to the Government, ‘What are your negotiating objectives?’”
Quite rightly Chancellor Philip Hammond, said that such behaviour would “spectacularly undermine” the chances of a good deal and Brexit Secretary David Davis told the Commons: “What the Opposition is trying to do is put [us] in a disadvantaged position to the EU. That is not