Boris Johnson compares latest Brexit deal to a suicide vest
Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson continued to attack Britain’s Brexit deal in an opinion article yesterday, saying Prime Minister Theresa May had strapped a ‘‘suicide vest’’ to the British Constitution and ‘‘handed the detonator’’ to Brussels.
‘‘Why are they bullying us? How can they get away with it? It is one of the mysteries of the current Brexit negotiations that the UK is so utterly feeble,’’ he wrote. ‘‘We have a massive economy; the sixth largest in the world. We ought to be able to do that giant and generous free trade deal the Prime Minister originally spoke of. And yet it’s, ’yes sir, no sir, three bags full sir.’ At every stage in the talks so far, Brussels gets what Brussels wants. We have agreed to the EU’s timetable; we have agreed to hand over £39 billion (NZ$77b), for nothing in return.’’ It’s Johnson’s second attack on May in under a week. Last Monday, he wrote that the negotiated deal is a ‘‘victory’’ for the European Union, and that Britain is getting ‘‘diddly squat.’’
Johnson’s colorful critique echoes the sentiment – if not the language – of anti-Europe members of Parliament who are urging May’s government to ‘‘chuck Chequers’’ and start again. ‘‘Chequers’’ refers to the Brexit plan negotiated by May in July.
Johnson’s comments drew a feisty response from his political opponents. Foreign Office Minister Alan Duncan called his piece ‘‘one of the most disgusting moments in modern British politics.’’ It should be ‘‘the political end of Boris Johnson,’’ Duncan wrote on Twitter.
Conservative lawmaker Tom Tugendhat said he was offended by Johnson’s use of the term ‘‘suicide vest.’’