Iain Duncan Smith:

Boris Johnson knows that fixing Mrs May’s deal will take more than removing the dreaded backstop

How are the mighty fallen. Two weeks ago, ardent Remainer MPS began their attack on Boris Johnson with threats of stopping a no-deal Brexit in any way they could. A group of Conservative MPS even appallingly agreed to enter talks with Jeremy Corbyn about an alternative stop-gap administration. Then, right on cue, there came the leak by a supposed disgruntled ex-minister of a report code-named “Yellowhammer” on the consequences of a no-deal Brexit. Full of doom and gloom, it inevitably told us that we are all, as Private Frazer from Dad’s Army would have said, “Doomed I tell ye, doomed!”

Perhaps the high point of this absurdity came with the former

chancellor Philip Hammond claiming that he knew the British people didn’t vote to leave with no deal. He alone, it appears, knows what motivated people to vote for Brexit. Really?

Three years after the referendum, when we were warned that our economy would collapse if we voted to leave, our economy has continued to grow, employment has risen to record levels, and we have received more foreign investment than any other country in the world except China. His comments aren’t so much a case of Yellowhammer as of yellow hubris.

But as ever in politics, a week has proved to be a long time. All this doomster rhetoric followed Boris Johnson onto the plane as he left last week to talk to Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron. His demand to drop the backstop would get short shrift, the Remainers chortled, and he would be sent home with his tail between his legs. They waited but, instead, both Merkel and Macron were willing to listen and engage. Far from lecturing him, they agreed to review his demand that they ditch the backstop and try to avoid a no-deal Brexit.

What these first encounters have exposed is the utter failure of the previous administration’s strategy, one best characterised by the sort of irrational fear that eats into the soul and renders the fearful weak and powerless. Ministers approached the negotiations as a desperate supplicant instead of as the fifth largest economy in the word, with unrivalled reach and influence around the world.

Boris’ approach couldn’t be more different. His EU meetings have been followed by the G7 summit at which, worryingly for the leaders of the EU, he and Donald Trump stole the show. With strong indications of an early trade deal with the USA, such UK/US arrangements would change the balance of power in the area of global trade. In financial services alone, we could set the global rules and regulations for years to come – enough to make the EU very worried.

However, there are genuine concerns here that simply getting rid of the backstop isn’t enough. Many believe that what the UK really needs is a basic free trade deal with a standstill on regulations and tariffs whilst this is completed after we leave.

I share those views – but I am sanguine because I am sure Boris understands that the deal Mrs May struck is a pig’s breakfast, under which the UK would surrender control to the EU far beyond the backstop. This includes the doctrine of direct effect of EU law, which would allow UK judges to strike down acts of Parliament that don’t comply with EU law; the implementation period, which we would spend under EU control; and, vitally, the fact that we would be tied into EU control on defence and security matters, an area where we must regain our sovereignty.

But the Prime Minister also knows that the Conservative Party is sitting in the last chance saloon and that the reason people are coming back to support us is because he has pledged to be out of the EU by October 31. He is well aware that if we fail to deliver this, the Brexit Party will destroy our electoral prospects.

Delivering Brexit is what the country wants, and it’s what we have all fought for. It is vital to rebuilding our sense of national self-respect and to regaining a real sense of common purpose. As we reflect on the years of funk and failure since 2016, we must recognise that this is at last within touching distance. Let’s not fumble it now by rushing early to criticise the Prime Minister – and instead give him the space he needs to achieve the full Brexit he promised.

Iain Duncan Smith is Conservative MP for Chingford and Wood Green