BORIS PUTS THE BOOT IN AGAIN
In furious attack on eve of Tory conference he says UK must scrap ‘democratic disaster’ of PM’s Brexit plan
BORIS Johnson dealt another savage blow to Theresa May last night with an incendiary intervention on the eve of her party conference. The former foreign secretary condemned her Chequers plan as a ‘democratic disaster’ and questioned her judgment.
In a 4,600-word ‘Brexit Manifesto’ he claimed the Chequers proposals, over which he resigned in July, would ‘cheat the electorate’ – and branded them a ‘moral and intellectual humiliation’. He urged Mrs May to change course and pursue a Canada- style free trade deal – which she has already said would be ‘worse than no deal’.
The timing of the intervention sets the scene for a fraught Tory conference in Birmingham and will be seen in Downing Street as an act of gross disloyalty.
Last night a senior Tory source said: ‘ We always knew Boris was going to be as unhelpful as possible to the PM this week. That is what he does.’
In his ‘manifesto’, Mr Johnson calls for the first time for Mrs May to tear up the Withdrawal Agreement with the EU, which was finally signed in December last year after months of painful negotiation.
In the essay, published in the Daily Telegraph, he says the UK ‘ stumbled and collapsed’ into the Northern Ireland backstop agreement, which he says is incompatible with his vision.
Mr Johnson said the Northern Ireland problem could be dealt with by checks carried out away from the border. But the idea was
explicitly rejected by the Tories governing partners in the DUP yesterday. And former Home Secretary Amber Rudd warned that 40 MPs would vote against it – making it impossible to get through parliament.
Last night, Mr Johnson set out his Canada-style Brexit blueprint which he said would ‘fulfil the instruction of the people’.
He claimed his alternative six-point ‘SuperCanada’ plan would make Britain ‘rich, strong and free’.
He called on Mrs May to negotiate the deal during a 21-month transition period which will follow Brexit on March 29.
She should rip up her backstop plan for Northern Ireland, he said, arguing that technology should be used to avoid a hard border in Ireland.
He said: ‘This is an opportunity for the UK to become more dynamic and more successful, and we should not be shy of saying that – and we should recognise that it is exactly this potential our EU partners seek to constrain.’ His call follows reports that some members of the Cabinet are moving towards a Canada- style agreement as an alternative to a ‘No Deal’ scenario.
In his 4,500 word essay, Mr Johnson
‘Opportunity to be dynamic’
argues for a change in position following a rejection of Mrs May’s Chequers plan by European leaders.
In the ‘A Better Plan for Brexit’ text, he writes: ‘ This is the moment to change the course of the negotiations and do justice to the ambitions and potential of Brexit. We have the chance to get it right, and I am afraid that future generations will not lightly forgive us if we fail.’
Though he does not directly attack Mrs May, the timing of his call to change position will inevitably drive speculation of a leadership challenge before January.
In a veiled criticism, he also describes the decision to call a general election last year as a ‘serious strategic mistake’.
Turning on the negotiating team, he adds that there has been a ‘collapse of will’ by ministers and civil servants to deliver on the Referendum result. He denounces the ‘pretty invertebrate performance’ of the British negotiating team, led by Olly Robbins, who Mrs May appointed.
Their ‘ supine position’ on Brexit has given the EU the upper hand while the UK has ‘stumbled and collapsed’ into the Northern Irish backstop plan which could effectively lead to the province’s annexation by the EU. Mr Johnson will attend a fringe event at the conference in Birmingham on Tuesday which is likely to overshadow preparations for Mrs May’s own speech on Wednesday.
Other fringe events by prominent Brexiteers will also call on Mrs May to ‘chuck Chequers’, including Jacob ReesMogg, who heads the Eurosceptic backbench European Research Group.
Mrs May will face a further threat from the backbench MP who will accuse Theresa May of ‘doing nothing to support’ traditional families in a major intervention at Conservative conference.
Mr Rees-Mogg will tell party activists that successive governments – including the current one – have undermined marriage with perverse welfare and tax policies.
His comments will be seen as a pitch to the Tory right and the start of positioning for a future leadership contest after he led calls to ‘chuck Chequers’.
The Prime Minister’s proposed deal sets out a ‘common rulebook’ for goods, which may make it more difficult to negotiate free trade deals around the world.
Brexiteers including Mr Johnson believe a Canadastyle deal would leave Britain free to negotiate its own deals elsewhere. They say it is the only model that could win the backing of Parliament. Both Labour and Eurosceptic Tory MPs have said they will vote against any Brexit deal based on Chequers.
Mrs May’s Chequers plan was also rejected by the leaders of the other 27 EU members when they met in Salzburg last week.
Mr Johnson criticises the ‘ backstop’ arrangement for Northern Ireland, which would place a border in the Irish Sea if no alternative arrangement for the province can be agreed.
He concludes that as Britain approaches ‘ the moment of truth’ in the Brexit process: ‘We must decide who we are – whether we really believe in the importance of our democratic institutions.’
EU leaders have said that if substantial progress towards a deal is made at their October meeting, an extra meeting will be held in November to thrash out the details.