Voters in Tory marginals say Chequers is bad for Britain
THE majority of voters in Britain’s most marginal Conservative constituencies believe Theresa May’s Chequers deal is “bad for Britain”, a poll has found.
Critics warned the deal is now more hated than the poll tax after a survey of voters in the party’s 44 most marginal seats found three quarters of people were “dissatisfied” with the Government’s handling of Brexit negotiations. More than half of those polled believe the policy is bad for Britain, while 21 per cent believe it is good. Brexit is considered more important in the marginals than the NHS and the economy.
Mrs May faced a mounting backlash from Tory MPS on both sides of the European debate yesterday after Boris Johnson called Chequers a “disaster” in an article for The Daily Telegraph.
Downing Street hit back at the former foreign secretary, saying that he offered “no new ideas” while the Prime Minister was offering “serious leadership and a serious plan”.
However Justine Greening, a Tory MP and prominent Remainer who is calling for a second referendum, today said she agreed with Mr Johnson.
Writing in The Telegraph, she said: “It [the Chequers deal] is now an unpopular, undeliverable mess neither people nor Parliament will accept.”
Her view was echoed by Tony Blair, the former Labour leader, who is also pressing for a second referendum. He said that Chequers was “doomed to fail” because it would be voted down by MPS.
Jacob Rees-mogg travelled to Brussels yesterday with a delegation of MPS to meet Michel Barnier, the EU’S chief Brexit negotiator. The Eurosceptic MP insisted that he had more in common with Mr Barnier than Mrs May on Brexit, and said that there was “considerable agreement that Chequers is absolute rubbish”.
Meanwhile, Lord Hague, the former Tory leader, warns in an article for The Telegraph that the party civil war over Brexit risks a no-deal Brexit or a second referendum, either of which could bring down the Government.
Like many of my colleagues in Parliament, I wanted the Prime Minister to deliver a good deal on Brexit. I wanted the Cabinet’s Chequers proposal to be a success. Sadly, it is far from that. It is now an unpopular, undeliverable mess that neither people nor Parliament will accept.
Even before its negotiation with the EU concludes, with only 14 per cent public support the Chequers proposal is now less popular than the poll tax, which had 19 per cent at the height of its unpopularity. If the deal was designed to bring the country together, it has united against it. The Prime Minister must listen to that and act upon it, not ignore it.
It is already clear that it has no prospect of being voted for in the House of Commons. As Margaret Thatcher once said: “The problem with standing in the middle of the road is that you get knocked down by cars from both directions.” As ever, she was right.
After the recess, more MPS are reflecting their constituencies’ disappointment on a compromise that delivers for no one. People understand that when it comes to Europe, you’re in or you’re out. To keep taking EU rules and pay a huge bill – only now with no say in making the rules – isn’t taking back control, it’s losing it. That means less sovereignty and power for our country, not more. That is against Britain’s interests, whether you voted to Leave or Remain.
The Chequers deal is not the Brexit those who backed Leave voted for. Nor is it what those who voted Remain want. Which begs the question, what is the point of it? It is this question that has brought me to the same place as Boris Johnson. We see the same reality that should be faced, not ignored. We must chuck Chequers.
It is time for Britain to take a clear and decisive direction, and the sooner the better. Yet the Prime Minister will waste the next two months flogging a Chequers agreement dead horse that no one wants. All this while the real challenges we face on social mobility, lack of opportunity and housing continue to miss out on the attention, as well as the leadership, they need.
In the disastrous 2017 general election, the Prime Minister at least abandoned her calamitous social care policy that was clearly so unpopular with the public and so hard for activists to sell on the doorstep. This Chequers Brexit deal should be ditched, too. Regardless of our disagreements on the path our country takes, a growing number of Conservative MPS return to Parliament united in our opposition to this fudge.
It is time for the Prime Minister to listen. She cannot drive the British people over a cliff just to prove it is there. King Canute politics are not what Britain needs. The tide has already come in on the Chequers deal.