May plays down Johnson spat
Disloyalty of Foreign Secretary
POLITICS: Boris Johnson has strong views on Brexit “but so do I”, Theresa May insisted as she attempted to downplay the Foreign Secretary’s outburst on the progress of negotiations.
The Prime Minister claimed “nobody ever said it was going to be easy” to quit the European Union but pledged to “deliver Brexit for the British people”.
BORIS JOHNSON has strong views on Brexit “but so do I”, Theresa May insisted as she attempted to downplay the Foreign Secretary’s outburst on the progress of negotiations.
The Prime Minister claimed “nobody ever said it was going to be easy” to quit the European Union but pledged to “deliver Brexit for the British people”.
Mr Johnson’s indiscreet remarks about Brexit, which saw him call for “guts” in the negotiations, emerged as Mrs May was on a flight to Canada for the G7 summit.
Quizzed by broadcasters on her arrival in La Malbaie, she said: “Boris has strong views on Brexit but so do I.”
The Foreign Secretary told a private dinner there was a risk Brexit “will not be the one we want” and would keep the UK locked in orbit around the EU.
At the gathering of the Conservative Way Forward, a Thatcherite campaign group, he branded the Treasury the heart of Remain and claimed negotiations were approaching a moment of truth. Mr Johnson was heard warning of a Brexit meltdown and said the UK could end up in the customs union and to a large extent still in the single market in the recording obtained by BuzzFeed News.
The Prime Minister was “going to go into a phase where we are much more combative with Brussels”, the Cabinet Minister said.
He also claimed fears about the border on the island of Ireland were out of proportion and said it was “beyond belief that we’re allowing the tail to wag the dog in this way”.
Mrs May said: “These are complex negotiations. Boris has strong views on Brexit but so do I.
“I want to deliver for the British people, that’s exactly what we are doing as a Government and if you look at the process of these negotiations – nobody ever said it was going to be easy.”
It comes as the PM’s latest Brexit proposals received a frosty reception in Brussels, with Michel Barnier raising objections to her plan for a time-limited customs backstop covering the whole UK.
But within minutes of concluding a press conference in Brussels, the chief EU negotiator took to Twitter to correct the impression that he was rejecting the UK proposals out of hand, stressing that they would be the subject of discussions in the coming days and weeks. Responding, Mrs May said: “This is a negotiation, Michel Barnier has said exactly that point. We have put a proposal on the table, on this backstop relating to Northern Ireland, we will now sit down and negotiate it with the European Union. We are getting on with the job.”
Friends of Mr Johnson said it was disappointing that the private dinner had been covertly recorded but senior Conservative Sarah Wollaston said dressing up the comments “under the cover of a ‘private’ discussion won’t wash”.
The Foreign Secretary’s comments are the latest Brexit headache for the Prime Minister. Mrs May also met twice with David Davis before flying out to the summit amid reports the Brexit Secretary was considering resigning unless she set a clear time limit on the temporary customs arrangement.
EVEN THOUGH Boris Johnson is supposed to be this country’s top diplomat, the Foreign Secretary has proved himself to be unworthy of high office following his latest Brexit broadside which effectively questioned the competence of Theresa May and came close to accusing Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, of treachery.
He should not have been making such injudicious remarks in any public forum – all Ministers are supposedly bound by the doctrine of collective responsibility – and showed remarkable naivety if he expected his remarks to Conservative activists to stay private in a week that saw Brexit Secretary David Davis threaten to resign.
This disloyalty shows why Mr Johnson is not cut out to be Prime Minister despite his ambition. Too divisive, he’s so bereft of diplomacy skills that it is doubtful that he should still be in the Cabinet, never mind as Foreign Secretary.
That he was not sacked – others have been fired by past premiers for far less serious breaches of discipline – reflects the invidiousness of Mrs May’s current position one year after losing her majority in the election.
Not only is she having to negotiate with the EU over the terms of the country’s exit from the European Union, and the future shape of trade policy, but she’s having to do so while leading a divided Cabinet with senior Ministers, like Mr Johnson, intent on settling scores with colleagues rather than making a positive, pragmatic and practical contribution to the biggest Government upheaval since Britain joined the then-EEC.
However, it’s a task which has become even harder after Mr Johnson went rogue – yet again – and suggested that President Donald Trump would have made a better fist of the negotiations with his belligerence before claiming that the Treasury, the guardian of the nation’s finances, was “basically the heart of Remain” and that concerns over the Northern Ireland border were “pure Millennium bug stuff ”.
If this is the case, why has Mr Johnson – a leader of the Leave campaign in the 2016 referendum – not reconciled any of the issues which appear to be proving so troublesome for Mrs May? Or is he, as many will conclude, solely interested in promoting himself, and making mischief for the Government, because he has little to offer?