TOMINEY Camilla
As talks with Brussels begin, Brexiteers are adapting their tactics to get the job done, says Camilla Tominey
AS THE Union Jack bunting comes down in Parliament Square this morning, Brexiteers nursing hang-overs have reason to be cheerful.
The UK is finally out of the European Union, and with the Remain movement now confined to the history books following Boris Johnson’s stonking election victory, Britain’s post-brexit future as a global free trade leader appears assured.
Yet having laid down their weapons after winning the referendum in 2016, only to find themselves unarmed against a rebel alliance determined to stop Brexit, Eurosceptics are not waving the white flag quite as enthusiastically as the Government had hoped.
The Prime Minister may have honoured his pledge to “get Brexit done”, but with the negotiations over Britain’s future relationship with Brussels only just beginning, it seems the battle lines are once again being drawn.
The war may have been won, but the question Brexiteers are now asking themselves is who is going to win the peace?
Although a number of Leave-supporting groups may be shutting up shop in light of Mr Johnson’s commitment to the regulatory divergence they have been demanding for the past three and a half years, the Brexit movement will continue – in both pressure group and think tank form.
Nigel Farage has already started talking about the Brexit Party morphing into a “forum for Brexit”, while The Daily Telegraph can reveal that a number of senior Tories have been working with Brexiteers from all parties on well established plans for a think tank devoted to developing a postbrexit policy agenda.
Tentatively named the “Centre for Brexit Studies”, the think tank will work with policy experts, researchers and pro-leave business figures to focus on identifying key areas where policy should change once Britain has fully left the EU after the transition period ends on Dec 31.
Other Eurosceptic groups that plan to continue campaigning include Stand Up For Brexit, Briefings for Britain and Global Vision, a new organisation being set up by Shanker Singham, a trade expert.
A source close to the new Brexit think tank, which will be launched in the coming weeks, said: “Among Brexiteers, there’s very much a feeling that we can’t down tools. As far as Downing Street is concerned, it never wants to utter the word
Brexit again. They want the public to think it’s sorted but it’s far from sorted. Brexit is a process, not an event. It’s far from finished. It’s hardly even begun.”
The winding up of Vote Leave is widely seen among the Brexit community as a great error and Leavers appear determined not to make the same mistake again.
“We’ve had the trench warfare, the battle has been won,” added the source.
“Brexit technically has been done – we will never be members of the EU again – but peace is about what you do after war.
“As soon as any conflict ends, you have to ask yourself, ‘What do you do with the losing side?’ Reshape and reintegrate people? The ruling elite by and large voted against this thing so how do you now persuade them to make the best of it? The challenge for the Government is going to be saying to the dissenters: make this work.
“By the end of this parliament, Mr Johnson must be able to say that Britain has not only left the EU, but created a strong and stable alternative to membership with trade deals around the world.”
Having vowed “never to return to Brussels unless I absolutely have to”, Mr Farage is in no mood for compromise.
He said: “The only reason we withdrew 317 candidates was because of Boris’s very public promise that we would not have regulatory alignment with the EU – that’s the key to everything. Quite honestly, if we stick with the status quo, then we will be asking ourselves in 18 months’ time why on earth we bothered to leave.
“I’m happy to be completely non-tribal and praise the PM to the sky for his words but we now need to see his actions. If he drops the ball, we will be there to catch it.”
And David Davis, the former Brexit secretary, knows he isn’t joking: “If we do the job, then the Brexit movement will evaporate but Nigel could resurrect himself at any moment. Say what you like about Nigel but he will do what he says he will do – he’s always delivered on that front.”
Steve Baker, chairman of the European Research Group (ERG) of Eurosceptic Tories, is similarly sanguine. So long as the Conservative manifesto is honoured, then the ERG will “go back to a time when nobody had ever heard of us”.
He insisted: “We would like to be in the position of never having to express a collective view again.”
Yet while they may be outwardly supportive, not all Tories are 100 per cent con
As far as Downing Street is concerned, it never wants to utter the word Brexit again. They want the public to think it’s sorted but it’s far from sorted. Brexit is a process, not an event. It’s far from finished. It’s hardly even begun
I’m concerned about the Government just blindly taking the advice of civil servants. We carried out a rescue mission and saved Brexit. Now we’re back at base – we’re lean, mean and ready to go back into battle if necessary
fident of the Government delivering on its election pledge to “take back control of our laws, our money, our own trade policy”, while ensuring we are “in full control of our fishing waters”.
One senior Conservative said: “There isn’t that much trust in Boris Johnson. It’s an operational belief rather than a belief in him personally. The Government isn’t just going to be given a free pass. The new intake think Brexit is a large part of why they are here – they won’t want to be seen to be behind any kind of Brexit betrayal.
“And there are a lot of people out there whose interest in the Government is predicated on Brexit – donors like Jeremy Hosking for instance (the investment manager who donated £1.7million to Vote Leave). These people can raise an army at a minute’s notice if needed.”
Another added: “Boris Johnson promised us the Withdrawal Agreement was dead, with triple underscoring when all that really changed was the backstop and the political declaration. That’s caused a lot of harm. His heart is in the right place but we know he has a degree of cunning.
“How you maintain integrity while exercising cunning is a moot point. Having said that, I’m very reluctant to keep throwing stones at him as a backbencher unless it’s absolutely necessary.”
Meanwhile, Brexiteers outside Parliament continue to be worried about the trustworthiness of the average Tory MP.
As Richard Tice, the former Brexit Party MEP and co-founder of the Grassroots Out campaign, put it: “The Tories have a great track record of talking the talk rather than walking the walk.”
Or as another sceptical Brexiteer adviser put it: “Sure the ERG will continue – the trouble is it is made up of politicians and they can very easily be bought off (except perhaps the 28 Spartans who voted down the May deal three times).
“It would be a mistake for the Brexit movement to put all its eggs into the ERG basket – they are susceptible to pressure – either bribery or threats which are very real now coming from a party with an 80seat majority. The Government is in quite a strong position to push these backbenchers about. There are also a lot of green MPS in the House who don’t know much.”
Mr Tice is also worried about the City exerting pressure on the Government to “sell fishing down the river to save financial services” – and the continuing influence
of the “Remainiac” Civil Service. “The trouble with (the UK’S EU sherpa) David Frost is no one outside the bubble has ever heard of him. I’m concerned we might be in another Olly Robbins situation again, with the Government just blindly taking the advice of civil servants. That fear has been accentuated by the recent decision on Huawei.”
Describing the Brexit Party as “a bit like the special forces”, he added: “We carried out a rescue mission and saved Brexit. Now we’re back at base – we’re lean, mean and
ready to go back into battle if necessary.”
Yet despite all the military rhetoric, how likely are further skirmishes in light of Mr Johnson’s entire political future appearing to rest on the success he makes of Brexit?
His next reshuffle, expected as soon as this week, is being seen by Brexiteers as an important test of the No10’s purpose. “If they get rid of a load of Leavers, then that’s not going to be a good look,” said one.
One Brexiteer minister says the mood music inside Downing Street is “positive”, adding: “Everything I see internally makes me confident the Government is sticking to everything it is saying publicly. It’s also encouraging that the PM and [Dominic] Cummings actually believe in Brexit.” Another added: “People forget Boris Johnson resigned from being foreign secretary over this. Both he and David Frost seem in agreement that we ought not to have the high alignment of Chequers.”
What many Brexiteers want to see now is Mr Johnson making the case for what happens now Brexit has been “done”. And there is certainly a consensus around driving a hard bargain at the negotiating table.
“For the EU, it’s a bloody disaster. Just about the biggest economy in Europe has walked off and is threatening to reconstitute itself as a much more dynamic free market economy and take the European states to the cleaners,” said one Tory insider.
“The British economy has got a lot of strengths – it’s number one in the world for services, its tech sector is second only to America and growing like mad.
“By comparison, Germany’s economy is in the toilet and France is living in the Stone Age by comparison. Sure, we could become Singapore-on-thames but we don’t even need to do that.
“No wonder the EU wants to ball-andchain us. Brexiteers simply aren’t going to let that happen.”