FRAU NEIN HOW MERKEL BLOCKED THE TRADE DEAL
Top British off icial blames Merkel’s ‘Lutheran distaste for libertine Boris’ for sabotaging Brexit talks
IN THE words of one negotiator, it is the ‘Lutheran’s distaste for the libertine’ that has pushed Britain to the brink of a No Deal Brexit.
Diplomats say the ‘trust issue’ between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Boris Johnson came to a head during last week’s fraught talks, when British negotiators tried to break the deadlock by proposing a ‘tariffs for freedom’ arrangement.
Under the plan – to have been fleshed out at Wednesday’s meeting between Mr Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen over a dinner of scallops and turbot – the UK would have effectively been released from the responsibility to follow EU rules in return for accepting that duties would be slapped on British exports to the bloc.
Despite most of the world’s attention focusing on the noisier objections of French President Emmanuel Macron, it was Ms Merkel – the morally puritan daughter of a Lutheran clergyman – who played the most quietly influential role in the EU’s flat dismissal of the idea. A source close to the British negotiating team said: ‘We thought this would be the moment. But they just weren’t interested. They won’t accept that Brexit means setting our own rules.
‘We could set up all sorts of dispute recognition systems to make sure the new plan was fair, but the root of the problem seems to be Merkel herself: she doesn’ t trust Boris. They are very different people.’
Ms Merkel joined forces with Mr Macron to stymie the British negotiations with Ms von der Leyen, with the two leaders refusing to let Mr Johnson enter direct negotiations with them.
Under the ‘ bad cop, bad cop’ pincer movement, Mr Macron has also insisted on driving a hard bargain with the British, convinced that Mr Johnson would buckle and agree to the EU’s terms rather than endure the double-whammy of No Deal combined with the ongoing Covid crisis. But the French President appears to have underestimated the influence of the PM’s Brexiteer backbenchers, who have made clear that any compromise on the basic principles of Brexit would lead to demands for a leadership contest.
No 10 officials admit to being taken aback by the inflexibility of Brussels’ position, which they attribute to ‘insecurity’ on the part of the EU. One said: ‘They are being so adamant about the need for us to stay fixed in their orbit, shackled by their rules, that it must mean they fear the UK becoming a nimble, low-tax, low-regulation Singapore- style economy on their doorstep, one which would be far more attractive to business.’
The symbolism of a post-Brexit Britain beating the EU to become the first Western country to approve and release the Pfizer vaccine last week was not lost on the negotiating teams.
The French and Germans were also bolstered by the Dutch and Belgian governments, which said they didn’t want a trade deal to be ‘rushed through’ without binding review clauses and legal scrutiny.
As the mood in the UK camp turned increasingly bleak, estimates of the chances of No Deal moved from 50-50 to closer to 80 per cent by last night.
Throughout the process, Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove – a former journalist at The Times – has been scribbling t he most doomsdayish headlines he could envisage at the end of talks.
One of his most alarming foresaw a ‘new Battle of Trafalgar’ if a No Deal outcome led to clashes with the French over access to British waters for their fishing fleets.
Yesterday – as a direct result of Mr Gove’s projections – it was announced that four Royal Navy vessels, armed with machine-guns and cannon, will be dispatched and given the power to arrest French and other EU fishermen who illegally enter British t erritorial waters if a trade deal is not agreed by December 31.
Wildcat and Merlin helicopters are also being placed on standby to help with surveillance. The endgame is under way.
‘She doesn’t trust him... they are very different’