Bullish Ukip demands six tests of Brexit
UKIP will go “from strength to strength” and prosper even more in elections if Theresa May backslides on Brexit, Paul Nuttall insisted yesterday.
The party leader also predicted a bright future for Ukip despite achieving its founding purpose of getting Britain out of the EU and seeing its only MP Douglas Carswell quit to sit as an independent.
He set out six tests for a “full Brexit” and warned the Prime Minister: “We will be the guard dogs of Brexit and woe betide Mrs May, woe betide the Conservative Party if they begin to backslide.
“We will be there. We will go from strength to strength because we’re the purists here, we’ve always been the champions of true, real Brexit.” He pledged: “If the Government begins to backslide then I believe we will prosper electorally.”
Referring to the resignation of Mr Carswell, he insisted Ukip does not need representation in the House of Commons to be able to “influence the political landscape”.
He stressed that his party has MEPs, peers in the House of Lords, councillors and Welsh and London assembly members.
Mr Nuttall added: “Ukip isn’t going away. I’ve read the obituary of Ukip over the years more times than I’ve had hot dinners and they have always been wrong.”
As Mrs May prepares to trigger Article 50 tomorrow with two years of talks, Mr Nuttall said: “We want her to keep faith with the will of the British people as expressed in the referendum.”
His six tests for her to prove “Brexit means exit” are:
Legal: Parliament must resume its complete supremacy over law making, with Britain wholly outside the rule of the EU’s European Court of Justice and not obliged to stay in the non-EU, 47-member European Court of Human Rights.
Migration: Britain must have full control of immigration and asylum policy.
Maritime: Britain must have full control of its fishing waters up to 200 miles off the coast or to the halfway point to other countries.
Trade: The UK must retake its World Trade Organisation seat with the right to set its own tariffs and do trade deals with other countries which may include offering the EU continued tariff-free trade.
Money: There must be no final Brexit payment to the EU and no ongoing payments after we leave. Britain must reclaim its share of EU financial assets.
Time: Brexit must be “done and dusted” before the end of 2019. “To go into the 2020 election with loose ends left untied or an open-ended transition still in progress would risk plunging the country into a new era of uncertainty and embolden those who wish to overturn the referendum result.”
Mr Nuttall added: “These tests represent what the people voted for on June 23, 2016.”