Compo, Foggy and Cleggy: the bumbling Brexiteers

THE three Cabinet Ministers spearheading the Brexit negotiations have been compared by a senior Tory MP with the bumbling characters from Last Of The Summer Wine.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Trade Secretary Liam Fox and Brexit Secretary David Davis claim that the UK will be able to strike lucrative trade deals with the EU and the rest of the world despite leaving the single market. But former Business Minister Anna Soubry says today: ‘Our Three Brexiteers are in considerable danger of being more like Compo, Foggy and Clegg – colourful characters, but very much the last of the Chequers summer wine.’

Mrs Soubry, writing in The Mail on Sunday, claims it is a ‘delusion’ that Britain can prosper outside the single market. She also dismisses as ‘thin gruel’ the results of a Cabinet meeting on Brexit held by Theresa May at Chequers on Wednesday.

Mrs Soubry says: ‘I assumed the Cabinet’s awayday would end with at least the semblance of a plan, especially after a busy summer for Messrs Johnson, Fox and Davis… we got nothing more than a resolve to curb immigration.’

Over the summer, Johnson, Fox and Davis have been engaged in a turf war over who will lead the negotiations. Yesterday, a leaked letter from Mr Johnson to Mrs May revealed that he had warned the Prime Minister to reject calls to stay in the single market. Mrs Soubry campaigned for Remain and left the Government when Mrs May became PM.

Mrs Soubry warns: ‘Don’t be fooled by the Brexiteers, who have leapt on figures out last week which show our economy is doing well. The underlying currents are very different.’