NEW EU PLOT TO WRECK BREXIT
Plan would tie UK to Brussels for decades
FEARS of a new Franco-German plot to sabotage Brexit and keep Britain tied to Brussels emerged last night.
EU sources say a fresh plan for the bloc’s future being put forward by French President Emmanuel Macron could lead to the UK being offered a flexible new membership deal.
His blueprint is expected to win the backing of Angela Merkel, who was last night returned as German Chancellor following yesterday’s general election.
Tory Eurosceptics are concerned that EU attempts to scupper a full exit from the bloc are accelerating following Theresa May’s decision to delay a full break with Brussels for at least another two years.
A senior Conservative MP said last night: “A serious effort to stop Brexit is now under way. I
am very worried that we will now never leave the EU.”
Mr Macron is due to give a speech tomorrow at the Sorbonne University in Paris detailing his vision for the EU’s future and creating a two-tier union.
He will say that France and Germany must press ahead with creating a core political and economic union at the heart of the EU.
The French president is expected to put forward proposals in policy areas including strengthening the economic and monetary union, deepening European defence, re-enforcing EU migration policy and increasing fiscal convergence in the bloc.
According to a senior British official in the European Commission, Mr Macron will also revive the idea of an outer ring for the bloc with more flexible rules for countries less enthusiastic about rapid integration. The official said: “A two-speed Europe is his answer to the Brexit problem.” Speculation about a possible last-ditch offer from EU leaders has fuelled concerns among Tory Eurosceptics.
Tory MP Nigel Evans said: “Nothing should stop us leaving the EU. The British people have voted to entirely leave the EU and that is what we are going to do on March 29, 2019. Their view has to be respected.”
Richard Tice, co-chairman of the Brexit-supporting pressure group Leave Means Leave, said: “By delaying Brexit for two years, the Prime Minister has weakened Britain’s negotiating position and buoyed Macron and Merkel into thinking they can keep Britain shackled to the EU forever. The Government must unequivocally rule out this proposal.”
Labour MEP Jude Kirton-Darling said she was “really angry” there would be no conference vote on Brexit and issues such as single market membership. “Brexit is way bigger than the Labour Party and way bigger than petty politics,” she said.
STUDYING a political speech is like eating a hefty dinner late at night: it takes time to digest. So there was no point rushing an analysis of Theresa May’s Brexit speech, every nuance needed to be well chewed before it could be swallowed. So now we’ve had more than 60 hours in which to reflect, what does Mrs May’s speech mean for the future of Brexit? Basically: keep calm and carry on.
The obvious bad news is that even though we’ll still be leaving the EU on March 29, 2019, in practice we won’t be free of Brussels for a further two years after that. You can almost hear the Remoaners boasting gleefully they told us Brexit would never happen but that’s hot air. It is going to happen, it’s just going to take longer than we hoped, sadly. Not the end of the world.
Most Remoaners in the Cabinet wanted a two-year transition period so that we left the EU gradually (and they could slowly overcome their bitterness and accept having to respect the democratic will of the people). Sources suggest that four ministers have argued in Cabinet for longer than two years with the business department even wanting five years.
In fact we’re not having a transition period, we’re having “a period of implementation”. Quite what we will be implementing during those two years remains a puzzle – what we must not implement is any more meddling laws or bureaucratic diktats from Brussels. That’s definitely not what we voted for and can’t possibly be what the Prime Minister meant when she assured us “Brexit means Brexit”.
THE likes of Philip Hammond, Amber Rudd, the BBC and the CBI can blather on about the extra two years being good because it “gives business a breathing space” and reduces uncertainty but isn’t it just going to create even more uncertainty? What will happen at the end of the two years if we haven’t ironed out all the inevitable wrinkles on immigration?
How many entrepreneurs will now commit to investing money and effort into global trade over the next few years if Britain remains tied to the EU’s red tape and regulations until 2021? From March 2019 we will no longer be an EU member so will lose our seat at the Council of Ministers, meaning we will have no say in any new laws to come from Brussels.
So it would be the antithesis of democracy if we were to be forced to accept them (or if we were stupid enough to volunteer to accept them). More than 17 million votes weren’t cast so that we could continue to let Brussels rule us.
We have to insist that March 2019 is the date that Brussels stops dictating to us for ever. It is on this point above all others that Boris Johnson can be expected to be most vociferous and he is right. Last, but by no means least, what will we do when the EU grabs the extra £20billion we’ve generously put on the table and demands more (as it inevitably will)? There is a definite limit on how much the British people will be happy to pay to Brussels to leave their shoddy little club.
I suspect we have already passed that point with the £20billion bung that has been offered. So hang on to your hats if our worst fears are proved right and £20billion suddenly becomes £40billion.
Enough of the potential gloom. We had more than enough of that with the ill-fated Project Fear. Let’s be positive. The not-so-obvious good news from Florence that went almost unnoticed, because it needed a post-speech media question to tease it out of the PM, is that she has in effect repeated what she said in her January speech at Lancaster House that we will be leaving the EU with or without a successful deal.
She didn’t put it in exactly those words, which is a shame because we’re never going to conduct a powerful negotiation unless the other side believes that we mean business. What she did say, Remoaners please note, is this:
“When I gave my speech at the beginning of this year I spoke not just about the preparations we were making for a successful negotiation but also about our preparations for our life outside the European Union – with or without what I hope will be a successful deal. And the necessary work continues on all these fronts so that we are able to meet any eventual outcome.”
NOTE the phrase “any eventual outcome”. It covers both a good deal and a bad deal. Or no deal. As negotiations go it’s a bit odd to make concessions to the other side (on free movement of labour from the EU, massive budget payments and the European Court of Justice being “taken into account” by British courts) and then threaten them with a big stick.
But who knows? It might just work. Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron are making tough noises but when the crunch comes, as it must, and their national economies are at risk, will they blink?
The one downside at the moment is that it’s clear the Cabinet is not a “nest of singing birds” as Boris Johnson put it. More like ferrets in a sack, many plotting to influence the most pro-Remain deal possible while their leader is in a weak parliamentary position.
Mrs May must stand firm against them. We want the Brexit we voted for, not the one Hammond and Rudd are praying for. We want to be a free-trading, dynamic sovereign nation again. Making our laws for our courts, in charge of our borders.
How hard can that be? There’s no reason for the Government to make a meal of it.
‘Mrs May must stand firm against plotters’