How Brexiteers’ hopes were shattered by a single meeting
‘They are selfish individuals who put career before country. It is pretty bloody obvious they prefer their ministerial cars’
FOR some in the room, it was a moment of déjà vu. In 2016, Michael Gove, then justice secretary, entered the Tory leadership race in an eleventh-hour about-turn that saw him quit as Boris Johnson’s campaign director in an attempt to secure the top job for himself.
Two years later, with the scars barely healed, Mr Gove made another surprise intervention, this time at a crucial Cabinet summit chaired by Theresa May, the Remain-supporting Prime Minister appointed to the role after his elimination from the contest.
Speaking in turn during a formal Cabinet session in the grand parlour at Chequers, the Prime Minister’s country retreat, Mr Gove, who had helped lead the official Leave campaign, insisted that Mrs May’s proposed agreement for a future trading relationship with the EU was the best realistic option for the Government. He said he had reached the conclusion as a result of the combined factors of the Government’s tiny Commons majority, the refusal of Brussels to budge on previous offers, and the fact that planning for a “no deal” outcome was found wanting.
Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, and David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, were convinced that the plan, which involved the UK acting as a tax collector for the EU and a “common rule book” with Brussels on industrial goods and agricultural products, breached key pledges made to voters both during the referendum campaign and subsequently by the Government.
Yesterday, Brexiteers expressed particular horror over a “non-regression” clause in the agreement pledging that existing environment, climate change, social and employment and consumer protection regulations must be “upheld”, a commitment they said was a serious infringement of UK sovereignty.
One Cabinet source said Mr Johnson, seen earlier gesturing animatedly at Mrs May over lunch, warned that Downing Street’s proposed “facilitated customs arrangement” (FCA), a successor to its favoured “new customs partnership”, would be a “serious inhibitor to free trade deals”. Anyone defending the proposal, he said, “would be polishing a turd”, adding: “But luckily we have some expert turd polishers”.
Mr Davis, meanwhile, is said to have warned the Cabinet that Mrs May’s plan for a “common rule book” on industrial goods and agricultural products would renege on her promise that the UK would take control of its own laws.
Mr Johnson and Mr Davis were among seven ministers who objected to the plans to varying degrees.
Those who joined them included Andrea Leadsom, leader of the Commons and former leadership rival to Mrs May. While Mrs Leadsom declared her support for the Prime Minister, the ex-Leave campaigner expressed unease at the high proportion of Remain-supporters in the Cabinet and civil service and said the Government must listen to Brexit voters.
Liam Fox, the International Trade Secretary, Esther McVey, the Work and Pensions Secretary, and Penny Mordaunt, the International Development Secretary, also raised objections, sources said. Chris Grayling, the Transport Secretary, and Baroness Evans of Bowes Park, the leader of the Lords, also expressed concerns, “to a limited extent”, said one insider.
Even before arriving at Chequers, the Brexiteers dissatisfied with the plan for Mrs May’s Brexit white paper realised that they did not have the num- bers in Cabinet to win the day. But they were hoping to secure concessions that could help stave off claims the proposals breached their pledges to take back control of the country’s laws and borders, as well as to leave the EU’s single market and customs union.
In the event, Mrs May “made no concessions whatsoever”, said one government source.
Gavin Williamson, the Defence Secretary, who voted Remain but spoke out for Brexit in meetings of the Cabinet’s sub-committee, did not add his voice to those raising concerns about the plans. Sajid Javid, the Home Secretary, largely confined his comments to questioning whether there was an alternative to the “common rule book” – to which the answer was no – and sought a cast-iron guarantee from Mrs May that a reference to a new “mobility framework” was consistent with the end of free movement, which she gave.
Following tea and coffee on their arrival at Chequers, ministers received an update on the negotiations and a briefing from Julian Smith, the Chief Whip, on the “parliamentary arithmetic”, an oft-used allusion to the Tories’ reliance on the Democratic Unionist Party to form a Commons majority.
The only other options on the table, ministers heard, were walking away without a deal; accepting a deal worse then the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement reached between the EU and Canada, already seen as unacceptable for its minimal coverage of financial services; or entering a deeper version of Norway’s membership of the European Economic Area, under which the UK would have to accept free movement of EU citizens and contribute to the bloc’s budget without any say in Brussels.
Most of Mrs May’s Brexiteers still believed the Government could be more ambitious in its proposals for the future relationship. They feared a major backlash among backbenchers, Tory activists and Brexit voters, but significantly outnumbered, and with the Prime Minister refusing to budge, they had only one choice if they wished to take their dissent any further: resign.
“They should have spoken for Britain,” one senior Tory said yesterday. “They failed. They are selfish individuals who put career before country.
“It is pretty bloody obvious they prefer their ministerial cars.” Angry Tory backbenchers aired their frustrations in messages this weekend that pointed the finger at Mrs May for “ambushing” her Brexiteers, but also at Mr Gove, Mr Johnson and Mr Davis.
An ally of Mr Johnson said: “There is no doubt we would be heading for an even softer Brexit had Boris not been around the table.” A friend of Mr Gove, who is believed to have designs on another attempt at leading the party, insisted his actions were simply pragmatic. “All the Brexiteers in the Cabinet agree, otherwise they would have resigned,” the friend said. But Mr Gove’s decision may backfire. “His pretensions to being a credible leader have been blown to smithereens,” said one senior Brexiteer. “He’s a busted flush.”