Why do so many MPs object to the PM’s Brexit deal?
AFTER two-and-a-half tedious years of negotiating, the British people need to know a simple truth. Where are the prizes of Brexit? When are we going to take back control? Where is the extra money? Where are the great trade deals with other nations?
Voters now feel a stronger tie to either Leave or Remain than political parties and if the Tories don’t deliver on these promises by the next election they will pay a heavy price and Jeremy Corbyn will stroll into Downing Street.
Theresa May has been painfully dogged in her determination to bring back a Withdrawal Agreement that gets the whole process moving, but what has finally arrived this week has triggered a chronic breakdown of trust in her.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, who has been loyal to the Prime Minister throughout the negotiating, put it powerfully yesterday in the House of Commons when he itemised her three broken promises:
Leaving the customs union – not according to this draft agreement.
Maintaining the integrity of the UK – the whole protocol says otherwise.
We would be out of the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice – not in the proposed text.
“As what my Right Honourable friend says, and what my Right Honourable friend does, no longer match,” he wondered, witheringly, should he submit his letter of no confidence in her to the 1922 Committee?
Rees-Mogg has always been scrupulous to play the ball not the man, but her anodyne answer to his pointed question left him fuming.
IN HIS subsequently submitted letter he made it clear again that this was a matter of trust. “It is of considerable importance that politicians stick to their commitments or do not make such commitments in the first place.”
That is why we cannot have a second Brexit referendum. Why on earth would anyone bother to go out and vote if the first result is ignored? It would severely undermine democracy in this country. An exit deal that faithfully delivers on Brexit and does not betray it by keeping us in an EU-dominated limbo without end is vitally needed to maintain that trust with 17.4 million voters. Once broken it could destabilise politics for a long time.
The major problem of course is that Theresa May knows that a majority of MPs are against a firm Brexit and are doing everything they can to derail it. This reveals that it is the politicians, not anyone else, that are the problem. Especially as it was Parliament that voted overwhelmingly to give the final word to us in a referendum. If it doesn’t like the answer we gave, why did they ask us in the first place?
Chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier is merely doing his job by making the process agonisingly difficult. French President Macron and German Chancellor Merkel are more interested in the EU elections next year and want their increasing waves of Eurosceptic voters to be discouraged by what has happened to us.
By proffering a dud deal they know will not pass through Parliament they want to force us towards a no-deal and all the political chaos that will involve. All in time to terrify their citizens into voting for pro-EU MEPs. With friends like that, who needs enemies?
As one drills down into the doorstop withdrawal document there are too many clauses that reek of Brussels bureaucracy and greed. Our financial commitments could carry on well beyond 2020, some even estimating that we will be paying the pensions of EU officials until 2064.
Among the rights granted to EU citizens in our country is their entitlement to UK social benefits even if they or their children move abroad. Is this what we voted for with Brexit? Surely we wanted to turn our backs on that gravy train?
BUT the EU cannot give up on our money and they want to drag out our departure for as long as they can. That Theresa May is being seen to be part of that process lies behind the anger of resigning ministers.
To be fair to the PM, I understand that if we are eventually to sign a trade deal with the EU, we will need to remain in regulatory alignment with them on goods and be part of a shared customs territory. But are we ultimately in charge of our own destiny or do we still have to go back to the EU cap in hand for permission to do anything? The fact that Michel Barnier wants to sign off on this proposal next weekend cannot be a good sign.
The art of good politics is to keep the message simple. The American Declaration of Independence is a page long. The draft EU Withdrawal Agreement is 585 pages. That’s because it’s all so complicated, bleat Remainers. But I share the view of writer Ann Coulter on this: “Whenever people start talking about complexity, I think it’s a scam.”
That’s why we voted Leave to be shot of such dense, heavyhanded red tape. After all, it’s only covering three main topics – and one of those is handing over £39billion of our hardearned money.
Theresa May is fast losing the trust of her parliamentary colleagues and millions of Brexit voters. Many of these are Tories and will never forgive her.
What is needed now is bold leadership to get our great country back on track and give us some of the undoubted benefits of freedom from the EU.
It would be nice if Theresa May could salvage the wreckage of this week and do that, but that could already have been taken out of her hands.
‘Parliament had voted to give the final word to us’