Former Brexit Secretary says Downing Street made a series of ‘strategic errors’
THE CRUSHING Commons defeat of Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement was the result of a series of “strategic errors” throughout the negotiation process by Downing Street, former Brexit Secretary David Davis has said.
Mr Davis, MP for Haltemprice and Howden, told the Commons European Scrutiny Committee that the Prime Minister had produced a “Remainers’ Brexit”, partly due to a habitual preference for the European Union among civil servants.
He told MPs that he had “railed” as Brexit Secretary against the “supplicant approach” which civil servants took towards the European Commission in negotiations.
And he said Downing Street’s tendency was to rely on the “riskaverse” guidance from senior civil servants, rather than the “more political and strategic negotiating advice” he offered. He declined to place personal blame on his initial permanent secretary at the Department for Exiting the EU, Olly Robbins, who later moved to Number 10 as Mrs May’s chief Brexit negotiator.
But he said: “He had two masters, one of which was the Prime Minister, so you can guess who won the arguments.”
Mr Davis added it was “a disgrace” that the civil service had not produced a “worked-up plan” for delivering Brexit ahead of the 2016 referendum, but said this was the fault of politicians who ordered them not to do so in order to avoid embarrassment.
He blamed Number 10 for the decision to accept the EU’s demand to deal with withdrawal issues before moving on to future trade arrangements, something which he had promised would be “the fight of the summer” in 2017. Mr Davis warned there would be “quite visible anger from the public at large – and not just those who might be counted as Leavers” – if the UK has not left the EU or begun a transition process to withdrawal by April.
His fellow Brexiteer, Morley and Outwood MP Andrea Jenkyns said the deal rejected by Parliament on Tuesday was “not a good deal” and that Theresa May “needs to look again at securing a better deal, we deserve better”.
She added: “As a fully independent sovereign nation we need to be in control of our own destiny and our own laws. The Irish Backstop threatens the integrity of the UK and restricts our ability to sign new and exciting trade deals. I would like to see a deal with the EU, but any deal needs to respect the promises made at the referendum. MP’s need to keep their promises and I intended to keep mine and stand up for my constituency of Morley and Outwood and the rest of Yorkshire which voted to leave.”
We need to be in control of our own destiny and our own laws. Morley and Outwood MP Andrea Jenkyns