Anger at Remainer MPs’ ploy to keep us shackled to Brussels
REMAINER MPs are insisting that Britain should stay permanently shackled to the EU even after Brexit.
They are calling for Theresa May to keep open the so- called norway option, which would see the UK continue to accept free movement and pay into the EU in return for better market access.
But the recommendations – from the Commons Brexit select committee – were condemned as an attempt to ‘thwart Brexit by stealth’ and should not even have been published after deep divisions between members emerged.
Chairman Hilary Benn last night said the option would allow ‘continuity of access for UK services and could also be negotiated relatively quickly’.
Despite the result of the referendum, the committee has a 10-6 majority in favour of Remain. with Mr Benn apparently unable to reach a consensus, this has led to a series of reports that have failed to win unanimous backing.
Committee member and prominent Eurosceptic Jacob Rees-Mogg said the decision to publish, despite a lack of consensus, was ‘another effort by Remainers to reverse the result of the referendum’.
Mr Rees-Mogg said: ‘The high priests of Remain on the select committee voted through another report seeking to thwart Brexit by stealth. This serves no useful purpose as select committees reports are only influential if they are unanimous – dividing on leave/Remain lines simply refights the referendum.’
Another committee member, Tory Peter Bone, described the report as ‘pretty worthless’ and accused Mr Benn of making ‘no effort to try to reach consensus’. He said the chairman had ‘never reflected my views’ in the committee’s reports.
‘This report – like some of those that have preceded it – is driven by Remainers pursuing a political agenda,’ he said. ‘They have produced another one-sided report which i and my colleagues cannot support. it takes into account the evidence that suits their agenda and ignores the evidence that does not. As a result it is pretty worthless.’
norway, which has never joined the EU, is a member of the European Economic Area (EEA), giving it full access to the EU’s internal market. But it has been estimated that such a deal would still mean the UK paying £31.4billion a year.
Mr Bone dismissed the idea of pursuing the option, saying: ‘it is all about trying to push the government into staying in the EU in one form or another, despite the fact the public voted to leave.’
Eurosceptic MPs have privately discussed a mass walkout from the committee, but decided against it because of the risk it would result in the committee being ‘packed with even more Remainers’.
Mr Benn, a former labour Cabinet minister who played a leading role in the Remain campaign, declined to comment on criticism of his leadership.
Today’s report calls on the government to consider negotiating continued membership of the EEA or joining the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) after Brexit. Brexit Secretary David Davis has previously ruled out both options, calling them ‘in many ways, the worst of all outcomes’. But the committee said that if the Prime Minister’s negotiations on a ‘deep and special partnership’ proved unsuccessful, EEA/EFTA membership should ‘remain an alternative’.
The committee’s Brexiteers voted against the report in its entirety, but were defeated 10-6.
in addition to the recommendation, the report also set down 15 ‘key tests’ for the government’s final Brexit deal with the EU to pass, which covered everything from the northern ireland border to the free flow of data. Mr Benn admitted to setting ‘a high bar’ with the tests, but said they were based on the past pledges of the Prime Minister and the Brexit Secretary.
‘No effort to reach consensus’