Brexit betrayal and a shabby plot to sink Boris

VERY few British politicians have emerged with honour in the aftermath of last year’s Brexit referendum.

Nigel Farage, without whose pressure on the Tory Government the public would never have been given a vote on the issue, has turned himself into a media personality and sycophant-in-chief to President Donald Trump.

Labour’s brave and widely respected Leave campaigner Gisela Stuart has stood down as an MP.

Shamefully, Jeremy Corbyn has betrayed working-class Labour voters (and his own onetime anti-Brussels instincts) by calling for Britain’s continued membership of the Single Market and European Court of Justice.

For their part, leading Tories who campaigned for Remain, led by Chancellor Philip Hammond and Home Secretary Amber Rudd, are trying to sabotage Brexit by striking a shabby compromise deal with Brussels.

Only one major political figure has behaved nobly and should be saluted for the way he has upheld the interests of Britain ever since the start of the referendum debate.

Who is he? The much-maligned Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson.

But, tragically, despite such integrity and principle, he has become the object of a vicious and orchestrated Westminster whispering campaign. Its aim is to get him driven from office in the Cabinet reshuffle expected later this year.

Mr Johnson is accused of incompetence, egotism and a failure to master detail.Yet none of these accusations is remotely true.

Indeed, diplomats and Foreign Office staff say his ability to master a brief is far more impressive than any of his most recent predecessors as Foreign Secretary. THE

truth is that Mr Johnson’s enemies want him out because he has single-handedly taken on the inherently pro-EU British Establishment, who are determined to stop Brexit happening in defiance of the wishes of the majority of the British people.

Johnson stands as one of very few members of the Cameron government to remain true to his beliefs.

This is in contrast to so many senior Tory colleagues — who have been forced to champion Brexit despite having been diehard Remainers until June last year. Even some high-profile Leavers, such as Michael Gove, seem to have lost the stomach for battle.

Since the referendum result, Mr Johnson has consistently fought a lone battle in Cabinet to ensure that the May Government keeps its promise that ‘ Brexit means Brexit’.

It is a hard job — and one that has been made much harder because of the appallingly unpatriotic behaviour of former colleagues such as George Osborne and David Cameron.

I have little doubt that Osborne, eaten up with malice and a desire for revenge, having been sacked by Theresa May, lies behind some of the most vicious attacks on the Foreign Secretary.

Indeed, the pro- EU former Chancellor, a key architect of the contemptible Project Fear during the referendum campaign, appears to have entered into a demeaning alliance of convenience with Blairite pro-Europeans who are hell-bent on wrecking Brexit.

Mr Johnson’s most deadly enemies, however, are some of his Cabinet colleagues. They are appalled by his vehement calls for a ‘clean Brexit’ whereby total separation from the EU is achieved in March 2019. A phalanx of senior ministers such as Mr Hammond wish Britain to retain membership of key European institutions well beyond that date.

Their strategy, though, is flawed. Britain can only retain trading relationships with the EU if we agree to remain subject to the supervision and control of Brussels. This ‘soft Brexit’ solution would be nothing less than a national humiliation.

Indeed, it would be far better to remain a full member of the EU than agree to this unsatisfactory halfway-house deal.

It’s no coincidence that Mr Hammond and his allies played leading roles in the Remain campaign. I have no doubt that their ultimate plan is to retain Britain’s EU membership.

So far, despite her visionary Lancaster House speech in which she said the UK ‘cannot possibly’ remain in the Single Market and that ‘no deal for Britain is better than a bad deal’, Mrs May has not come down on either side in this epic Cabinet battle.

This leaves Boris Johnson as the most senior voice in government staying true to the 17.4 million Britons who voted to leave the EU last year.

For that he should be championed — not be the target of a political assassination hit squad.