We Brexiteers must embrace our critics
Our exit from the EU is now inevitable, so its backers should work with reasonable Remainers
As Theresa May prepares to formally start the exit process next week, it’s time for Brexiteers to embrace our reasonable detractors. By three to one, the public back the Prime Minister’s vision for post-Brexit Britain. That helped shatter the visceral but brittle opposition in the unelected House of Lords. When the legislation returned to the House of Commons last week, MPs passed a clean Bill with even larger majorities.
Still, the fact that 10 of my Conservative colleagues abstained should give pause for thought. From Dominic Grieve to Nicky Morgan, these are talented and decent MPs.
It’s not just that those of us who feel passionately about the issue should understand the depth of conviction on all sides. I respect Sir John Major, but, his latest vitriolic attack on Brexit and Brexiteers is the exception, not the rule.
Remember, it was two Remain MPs, Oliver Letwin and Mark Harper, who delivered the most devastating speeches last week, demolishing the Lords’ arguments. You don’t have to be some kitten-cuddling consensus seeker to grasp the force of carrying as many Remainers with us as possible.
Meanwhile, EU Council President Donald Tusk has told the European Parliament that the EU will not be intimidated by British threats – in the form of Britain’s polite but firm refusal to be bullied by Brussels’ occasional murmurings of “revenge”. If this is some diplomatic version of Stockholm syndrome, Mrs May isn’t buying it.
Rather than reeling in indignation, we Brexiteers need to accentuate the positive – which included Tusk’s unequivocal statement that the EU must aim for a “smooth divorce” and remain “good friends” with Britain. I’ll be taking a leaf out of my Czech grandmother’s book; growing up, she perfected the art of looking beyond my misdemeanours by magnifying the most insubstantial evidence of good behaviour. It was irritatingly effective.
While sticking to our guns, we need to show the EU that we want to support not weaken it. Take the slight delay in triggering Article 50: waiting a couple of weeks to work out a choreography for talks to start, that works for Britain and our European friends costs us nothing. Yet already, EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier has dropped his suggestion that we can’t talk about trade until we accept the Brussels’ calculation of the exit costs we’ll pay.
The diplomatic risk for Britain lies not so much in our failing to identify our adversaries as in misunderstanding who our real friends are. The Dutch, for example, have just been through a traumatic election. In the end, their traditional model of consensus democracy just about withstood the assault by the anti-immigrant firebrand Geert Wilders. Like many, I bristled when Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte linked Wilders, who attacked “Moroccan scum” during the election, with Brexit. It is ignorant and offensive to tar both with the same brush.
Yet having lived in The Netherlands, I can appreciate what was at stake for the country. It has a small but impressive liberal economy, and prides itself on the tolerance of its society. For all its affinity with Britain, history has anchored Dutch identity squarely within the EU project. Still, we couldn’t wish for a more doughty friend and ally. During my time in the Foreign Office, it was invariably the Dutch who were our last friends standing in the EU councils. And for a small country, the Dutch really punch above their weight on the battlefield – including in Afghanistan – when many larger nations didn’t have the stomach for it. It would be all too easy to underestimate, and underappreciate, their value in the diplomacy that lies ahead.
Across Europe, Britain needs to demonstrate that we grasp the epic challenges that the EU faces, and offer genuine support in helping our friends meet them. That is the way to remove Brexit from the list of existential threats to the EU and render it a more technocratic question of how to maintain the strong links – from trade to security – that both sides need.
During America’s bitter Civil War, Abraham Lincoln acknowledged that all those with “a heart to help” had a “right to criticise”. As we chart our course towards Brexit, it’s not a bad piece of advice to keep in mind, at home and abroad.
Dominic Raab is the Conservative MP for Esher & Walton and a member of Parliament’s Brexit Committee