PM Sunak ‘imitating May over Brexit strategy’
JACOB REES-MOGG has accused Rishi Sunak of imitating Theresa May’s doomed Brexit strategy as Tory Eurosceptics were urged to allow the “time and space” needed to fix the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The prominent Brexiteer questioned why “so much political capital” was being spent on brokering a new deal without ensuring the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and his wing of the Conservative Party were on board.
Negotiators could “see the finishing line” for a deal as fresh high-level talks were arranged with the European Union amid warnings of potential ministerial resignations over any deal.
Irish premier Leo Varadkar was unsure whether a breakthrough could come this week, but said a “huge amount of progress has been made” as he called for Mr Sunak to be given “some time and space” so he can consult with the Conservatives.
Health minister Maria Caulfield, a Brexiteer who quit Theresa May’s frontbench over her Chequers plan, urged colleagues to “support the Prime Minister”.
“There isn’t a deal done yet so all these rumours about ministers or MPs not being happy, I haven’t seen the details, we have to give the Prime Minister that time and space to get these negotiations done,” she told Times Radio.
“We need to give him the time and space to thrash out the final elements of any final deal.”
But Mr Rees-Mogg, a former Cabinet minister and long-term critic of Mr Sunak, criticised his tactics as similar to those that eventually led to the resignation of Mrs May as prime minister.
He joined Boris Johnson in urging Mr Sunak to press ahead with the controversial Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, effectively ripping up parts of the agreement with Brussels, rather than seeking a deal which may not guarantee the return of a powersharing executive in Stormont.
But in a new rift in the Tory party, former justice secretary Sir Robert Buckland wrote in an article published in The House magazine that the Bill “no longer has any legal justification” now the situation has “dramatically” changed.
On his ConservativeHome podcast, Mr Rees-Mogg said: “There seems to me to be no point in agreeing a deal that does not restore powersharing.
“That must be the objective. If it doesn’t achieve that objective, I don’t understand why the Government is spending political capital on something that won’t ultimately succeed.”
He said the Bill has the support of “the person who had a mandate from the British voters” - Mr Johnson - and he said Mr Sunak should first get the approval of the European Research Group (ERG) of Conservative Eurosceptics.