Boris: May must show more guts on Brexit
Foreign Secretary warns Britain risks being ‘locked into EU orbit’ in scathing attack on Government
BORIS JOHNSON has warned that Britain could end up “locked in orbit around the EU” in his most critical comments to date about the Prime Minister’s handling of Brexit.
The Foreign Secretary told Conservative donors that the country could end up effectively “in the customs union and to a large extent still in the single market” unless the Government had the “guts” to pursue the right policies.
He joked that if Donald Trump was in charge of Brexit, “actually you might get somewhere”.
Mr Johnson said it was “beyond belief” that the Northern Ireland border issue had been allowed to dictate policy, describing it as “allowing the tail to wag the dog”. He also described Philip Hammond’s Treasury as “basically the heart of Remain”.
Mr Johnson made the comments at a private dinner with Tory donors, which were recorded by one of the attendees and leaked to the media, and published last night on Buzzfeed News.
His direct criticism of Mrs May’s negotiating strategy with the EU is likely to lead to renewed speculation about his future. On what amounted to a cha- otic day for the Government’s Brexit policy, Mrs May also made concessions designed to head off a rebellion over the EU Withdrawal Bill next week.
The Government tabled five amendments to the Bill, one including an extension of the right to bring court cases under European law from three months after exit day to three years, provided the lawsuits have arisen before March 2019.
Downing Street also conceded that Britain could end up paying more money to the EU after the end of the transition period in 2020, after Mrs May announced that her “backstop” plan to avoid a hard border with the Republic of Ireland would have an “expected” end date of December 2021.
Meanwhile, Sir Alan Duncan, Mr Johnson’s deputy at the Foreign Office, appeared to suggest it was possible that a referendum could be held on whether to accept the final Brexit deal.
Mrs May left London on a flight to the G7 summit in Canada yesterday afternoon believing she had headed off the latest crisis over Brexit, after placating David Davis when he had threatened to resign as Brexit Secretary.
But while Mrs May was en route, a transcript of a recording of Mr Johnson’s remarks appeared on Buzzfeed’s website. He had spent an hour answering questions during the dinner at the Institute of Directors in London, which followed a meeting of the Conservative Way Forward policy group. Mr
Johnson said Brexit “will happen” but “the risk is that it will not be the one we want”. He said there was a high chance of a Brexit that crossed the “red lines”, keeping Britain “locked in orbit around the EU, in the customs union and to a large extent still in the single market... so not really having full freedom on our trade policy, our tariff schedules, and not having freedom with our regulatory framework either”.
He said Remainers were too worried about short-term disruption to see the longer-term benefits. He added that the “prophecies of doom” were “pure millennium bug stuff ”, and continued: “The idea that we can’t track movement of goods, it’s just nonsense. Unless you make the change, unless you have the guts to go for the independent policy, you’re never going to get the economic benefits of Brexit. You’ll never get the political benefits of Brexit.”
Turning to the subject of the US president, Mr Johnson said: “Imagine Trump doing Brexit. He’d go in bloody hard… there’d be all sorts of breakdowns, all sorts of chaos. Everyone would think he’d gone mad. But actually you might get somewhere. It’s a very, very good thought.”
However, he backed Mrs May to “go into a phase where we are much more combative with Brussels”.
He said: “You’ve got to face the fact there may now be a meltdown. OK? I don’t want anybody to panic during the meltdown. No panic. Pro bono publico, no bloody panico. It’s going to be all right in the end.” A friend of Mr Johnson said last night it was “disappointing” that his comments under Chatham House rules had been reported. Downing Street declined to comment.
Last night Mrs May repeatedly refused to give a “cast-iron” guarantee the backstop would come to an end in December 2021. She said: “It is there in the circumstances where we have agreed the end state customs arrangement but for technical reasons it is not possible to put that in place. Our focus is going to be making sure we get that agreement.”