Don’t celebrate yet. Anti-EU Spartans are STILL deciding
THEY are the Tories’ Praetorian Guard on Brexit and even at this late hour, they are not relaxing their relentless watch.
The powerful European Research Group of backbench Tory MPs is expected to deliver its verdict on Boris Johnson’s deal on Tuesday – just 24 hours before the crucial Commons debate.
ERG chairman Mark Francois is keeping the PM waiting by insisting that first the MPs must carry out a forensic, line-by-line study of the deal – led by arch-Brexiteer and veteran MP Bill Cash.
Privately, though, senior figures from the ERG – often branded a
‘We’re fact-checking this for the entire nation’
‘party within a party’ by critics – are signalling that so far at least, they like what they see.
One hailed the deal, saying ‘we’ve got zero-tariff, zero-quota trade with the EU – we’re not paying them a penny in annual fees’ and wondering how long it will be before remaining EU members start asking for the same.
And with Labour set to support the deal, it is likely to pass even if the fiercely Eurosceptic group sparks a Tory rebellion this week.
Mr Francois and other key players in the group yesterday took delivery of hard copies of the 1,246page draft, with the Essex MP immediately reaching for his trademark Post-it notes and marker pens to begin poring over the text.
Mr Francois told The Mail on Sunday that the ERG’s special ‘star chamber’ of experts, led by Sir Bill, would be fact-checking the document not just for the group but for the whole nation.
He said: ‘The Prime Minister has assured us this is a good deal and he may well be right. But given the long history of all this, I am sure he will not take it personally if we reserve the right to read the small print, as you should do in life before signing any contract.’
Mr Francois, one of 28 so-called Tory hardline Brexiteers known as ‘Spartans’, added: ‘As we may have to vote on this as early as next Wednesday, Sir Bill Cash and his star chamber are assisting not just the ERG and indeed, Parliament, but are effectively factchecking this deal on behalf of the nation. Their verdict will be crucially important before Parliament convenes.’
Mr Francois has already voiced his frustration that MPs will be expected to debate and approve the necessary legislation in one day when apparently ‘the European Parliament can now do so at their leisure until the end of February’.
And last night, former Brexit Secretary David Davis urged the Prime Minister to think again and allow the Commons to give ‘symbolic and emblematic’ approval this week, pending much fuller debates in the New Year. He said: ‘It looks like we are going to be given less time to consider than it takes to read it, which is not good enough.’
Mr Davis said he was ‘very much in favour’ of the deal that Mr Johnson appeared to have achieved but insisted MPs had to scrutinise it.
But he also warned of potential ‘booby traps’, saying: ‘We know from history that the EU has a habit of putting in little quirks into its international treaties.’