Liam Fox:
Leading Tory Eurosceptic hits out at May’s treatment, gives his post-brexit vision and warns of ‘toxic’ Labour
For Liam Fox, the rancour over Theresa May’s treatment at the hands of European leaders at the disastrous Salzburg summit still lingers.
In an interview with The Daily
Telegraph, he said the way she was treated by European Union leaders at the meeting, which saw them unanimously reject her Chequers plan, went “beyond the pale”.
“I thought the behaviour was unacceptable,” the International Trade Secretary said.
“To openly taunt the Prime Minister when, of all people, she was most polite and well mannered, was way beyond the pale.
“It reminded me of during the referendum when you heard voices saying Britain would have to be punished for leaving the EU. Then I said it was the language of a gang, not a club.”
The European Union, he said, once again demonstrated its “intransigence” by putting the “abstract purity” of the European project ahead of its own economic interests.
Brussels is “driving” Britain towards a no-deal Brexit, which he suggests will be significantly more harmful to the EU than it is for the UK.
“I have always said the trade elements of our relationship should be relatively easy. But it has never been about just trade, it has always been about the politics,” he said.
“We have got to make a decision. Is Brexit about the people and businesses and prosperity of Europe, or is it about the abstract purity of the EU and European bureaucracy?
“That’s the choice we have to make. We have to make it right now. To constantly say they don’t like it but not produce anything is actually driving the process towards a no-deal.” Dr Fox is unquestionably one of the most ardent Eurosceptics remaining in the Cabinet.
In pride of place in a cabinet on the wall of his office is a referendum ballot paper.
While the Prime Minister has repeatedly refused to say that she would back Brexit in a second referendum, Dr Fox is categorical.
The UK will be “a better and stronger country” outside the EU even in the event that it leaves without a deal, he said.
“If the referendum came tomorrow, I would be twice as keen to cast my ballot,” he added.
He is also one of a handful of Leave campaigners in the Cabinet prepared to publicly endorse the Prime Minister’s Chequers compromise.
Dr Fox, a prominent Eurosceptic, considered quitting over the compromise but was ultimately won round by assurances that Britain would be free to vary tariffs and quotas after Brexit.
While Boris Johnson and David Davis, his erstwhile allies, are now promoting an alternative Canada-style Brexit plan, Dr Fox is resolute in sticking to the line that Chequers is the only option left on the table.
“The more we discuss the British Government potentially changing its offer, the less the offer will be taken seriously,” he said.
“Any plan B needs to be an EU plan B. They need to come forward with an idea now, because intransigence will push us towards exit and a no-deal,” he said.
“What we can’t do is spend our time negotiating with ourselves. It [a Canada deal] is not on offer.
“The EU has said they won’t negotiate a Canada agreement unless Northern Ireland is in the customs union. We can’t allow that to happen.”
Dr Fox believes that the Government must now start detailing in public just how bad a no-deal Brexit would be for the EU.
He said: “I think that it’s time we started in public to make that case for why no deal would be economically harmful for European businesses. It would be harmful to British businesses – which is why it’s better we get a deal.
“It’s utterly fanciful that no deal would not hurt our European trading partners.
“People must be rational and balanced about this [no deal]. Those who choose to interpret data assuming that everything will be the worst possible case are falling into exactly the trap as we had at the referendum.
“I think we will be better off by leaving the European Union. Britain will be a better and stronger country by being outside the EU.”
Dr Fox will use his speech at next week’s Conservative Party conference to focus on the “huge battle” ahead – countering Jeremy Corbyn’s “utterly toxic” Labour Party and its “poisonous” economic policies.
John Mcdonnell, the shadow chancellor, unveiled plans at Labour’s conference to end “vast executive salaries”, sack bosses of renationalised companies and snatch away profits from successful firms. Dr Fox said that Labour is now the “number one” reason why firms hesitate to invest in the UK and that Labour is not the party of young people, describing it as “one of the biggest lies in British politics”.
“We have seen the poison that is in the body politic that is the Corbyn Labour Party. We have seen it on display this week,” he said.
“It goes beyond recklessness into utter irresponsibility, what they would do with the fiscal position of this country.
“One of the key messages I want to make is to young people. Labour is not the party of young people...that is one of the biggest lies in British politics.
“They are the party that is most against young people because they will saddle the next generation with debts and taxes that they will struggle their entire working lives to pay off. They are utterly toxic.
“It’s very easy for people to disregard them and say that no one would ever elect a government like that. But we can’t leave that to chance. Our politics will change when we leave the EU.
“We have been very much defined as Leavers and Remainers since the referendum.
“But there won’t be many rejoiners once we’ve left. Our politics will go back to a socio-economic basis. We must steel ourselves for the battle that’s ahead domestically.
“This will be a huge battle. We need to go back to our first principles setting out what we believe in as a party.
“We are a meritocratic party that believes in the security of the state, that those who can help themselves should help themselves, but the state has a responsibility to those who cannot help themselves.”
For Dr Fox, it is time for the Tories to return to their ideological roots.
“The Conservatives should believe in government being small but better,” he said.
“We should believe in a low-tax economy.
“When we can, I’m very much keen that we encourage the bits of the economy that create wealth.”
He said that the Tories now need to position themselves as the defenders of the “wealth creators” and stop “banning things”, as they risk creating a nanny state.
“We have got to start making the argument for the wealth creators,” he said. “I’m not particularly happy with banning things. Far better to encourage people to change their behaviour.
“In general, I think that Conservatives should be seeing banning as an absolute last resort in a free society. I have never been big on the nanny state. But then I’ve never had a nanny.”
‘It’s utterly fanciful that no deal would not hurt our European trading partners’
‘Labour is not the party of young people... that is one of the biggest lies in British politics’