BORIS V MAY
As the fight to deliver Brexit turns nastier... does Johnson’s vitriolic assault on PM’s plan signal the start of an audacious bid for No 10?
TORY feuding over Brexit deepened yesterday as Theresa May and Boris Johnson traded barbs in an extraordinary public spat.
On the eve of today’s Commons return after the summer break, the Prime Minister’s spokesman issued a scathing rebuke to her former foreign secretary for criticising her “Chequers” EU departure proposal.
The Downing Street official accused Mr Johnson – believed to be gearing up for a leadership bid – of offering “no new ideas” and lacking any “serious plan” for delivering Brexit.
His withering putdown was issued after the former Tory Cabinet minister ridiculed Mrs May for allegedly heading into negotiations with “the white flag fluttering”.
The confrontation between Number 10 and the leading Brexiteer was followed by a series of jibes from both Remain and Leave-backing Tory MPs.
Now many fear the party is on the brink of civil war ahead of a make-orbreak autumn Commons sitting when the EU exit talks reach a climax.
Yesterday Mrs May’s hopes of winning Commons backing for her Brexit plan appeared to diminish when proBrussels Tories joined the chorus of criticism. Former education secretary Justine Greening said: “The Chequers deal is more unpopular than the poll tax.” Speaking to the BBC World At One programme, Ms Greening said the deal was “untenable” with only 15 per cent support from the public.
“Chequers is now dead and there’s no point having a government spending two vital months working on that when what it needs to do is start working on an alternative route for us,” she said.
Downing Street lashed out yesterday in response to Mr Johnson’s most damning assessment yet of the Brexit plan agreed by ministers at a Cabinet away-day summit at the Prime Minister’s Chequers country retreat in July.
Writing in a newspaper article, Mr Johnson said: “In adopting the Chequers proposals, we have gone into battle with the white flag fluttering over our leading tank. If we continue on this basis we will throw away most of the advantages of Brexit.”
Mr Johnson said the Prime Minister’s plan for a “common rulebook” for the UK and EU to cover trade in goods would make it “impossible for the UK to be more competitive, to innovate, to deviate, to initiate” as well as “ruling out major free trade deals”.
He added: “We will remain in the EU taxi, but this time locked in the boot
with no say on the destination. We won’t have taken back control – we will have lost control.”
Asked about the article at a regular briefing for Westminster lobby journalists, Mrs May’s spokesman said: “Boris Johnson resigned over Chequers. There’s no new ideas in this article to respond to.
“What we need is serious leadership with a serious plan and that’s what the country has with this Prime Minister and this Brexit plan.”
He added: “The Chequers proposals are the only credible and negotiable plan which has been put forward and which will deliver on the will of the British people.”
In a sign that the PM’s allies are launching a co-ordinated attack in an attempt to paint Mr Johnson as devoid of ideas, Home Secretary Sajid Javid then intervened, saying: “For those who think there is a different way then they need to properly set out what alternatives there might be.”
Mr Javid’s predecessor, Amber Rudd, who clashed with Mr Johnson during the EU referendum campaign, dismissed her old adversary’s latest intervention as “ridiculous”.
She added: “This isn’t a strategy, it is not a plan.”
Mr Johnson was praised by fellow Eurosceptic Tories for speaking out. Former environment secretary Owen Paterson described his comments as a “clear articulation” of the “myths” surrounding the issue of the future of the Irish border in the Brexit negotiations.
Steve Baker, who quit as Brexit minister in protest at Chequers, called Mr Johnson’s article “superb”.
And Jacob Rees-Mogg, chairman of the 60-strong European Research Group of Tory MPs, spoke out after a private meeting with EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier yesterday as part of a delegation of MPs on the Commons EU Exit Committee.
Mr Rees-Mogg said there were “hundreds of suggestions” for the basis of a deal with the EU and “it’s a question of choosing which of the many is the best”. He added: “It is certainly not Chequers.”
But the Prime Minister’s spokesman yesterday insisted the Chequers proposal had received a “positive response” from EU leaders.
“It’s very clear that the Chequers proposals are being taken seriously,” said the spokesman. “What you’ve seen over the summer from a series of European leaders is a positive response to the proposals.”
Former EU exit secretary David Davis, who also quit the Cabinet following the Chequers meeting, yesterday appealed for calm on all sides in the Brexit debate. “We don’t need any more turbulence right now,” he said. And in an apparent swipe at Mr Johnson, he added: “What matters… is not the personality politics, it’s the outcome at the end.”
SO THE summer break from the endless Brexit bickering is well and truly over and even before the Commons returns from its recess today the rival politicians have been trading insults like spiteful schoolchildren.
The Prime Minister’s Chequers deal is more unpopular than the poll tax, snipes former education secretary and Remainer Justine Greening.
Mrs May’s plan means “going into battle with the white flag fluttering”, says former foreign secretary Boris Johnson – begging the question of whether he is set to launch a leadership challenge.
There are “no new ideas” in Boris’s latest pronouncements, Number 10 hits back. None of this name-calling is helpful to the national cause.
While our politicians fight among themselves they leave an open goal for EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier to shoot into and this is a man who takes every concession from the UK as an invitation to demand yet more.
Yes, the Prime Minister’s Chequers plan looks more of a non-starter with every passing day and, yes, we do need to hear less rhetoric and more detail from Mr Johnson.
He has at least opened the discussion but it’s a proper national debate we need on the best way to achieve the Brexit the people voted for – not a mud-slinging free-for-all. Only then do we have any chance of putting on a united front, taking the real fight to the EU and getting the best possible deal for Britain.