IT’S NOT TOO LATE TO SAVE BREXIT

Boris warns Theresa’s EU plan ‘has left us in a fog of self-doubt’

BORIS Johnson savaged Theresa May’s Brexit strategy yesterday as he laid the ground for a possible leadership challenge this autumn.

In an extraordinary resignation speech in the Commons, the former foreign secretary said the Prime Minister had ‘dithered’ over Brexit and there had been ‘18 months of stealthy retreat’.

He said her Chequers plan would lead to ‘Brexit in name only’ and leave Britain in a ‘miserable, permanent limbo’.

Although Mr Johnson stopped short of making a direct challenge to Mrs May in his 12-minute personal statement, he did warn her to change direction.

He declared it was ‘ not too late to save Brexit’ – and made it clear he stood ready to lead the charge to ensure a clean break with the EU this autumn.

Allies of Mr Johnson, who resigned over the Chequers deal last week, insisted that he was not trying to topple the Prime Minister.

But Eurosceptic MPs heaped praise on his intervention, with Jacob Rees-Mogg describing it as ‘the speech of a statesman’.

Mrs May, who was giving evidence to MPs in a committee, did not see him speak.

One ally of Mrs May was scathing about the speech, saying: ‘I’m not sure “believe in this country” quite constitutes a detailed plan.’ Mr Johnson’s speech came as:

Former Brexit secretary David Davis revealed he had carried out extensive work in government on a comprehensive freetrade deal with the EU that would have avoided the need for a ‘common rule book’.

Eurosceptic MP Simon Clarke withdrew a letter of no-confidence in Mrs May.

Mrs May prepared to travel to Northern Ireland today, where she will repeat her insistence that there should be no ‘hard border’ with the south.

Michael Gove insisted the UK could do a free-trade deal with America, despite a refusal to accept chlorinated US chicken.

Ministers prepared to publish a ‘mythbusting’ dossier about the Chequers deal to secure public support.

A Cabinet minister said MPs had ‘come to their senses’ after weeks of infighting, adding: ‘ People have woken up to the importance of unity.’

Mr Johnson began his speech by praising Mrs May’s ‘resilience and courage’ and backing the ‘bold’ vision for Brexit she set out in a Lancaster House speech in January 2017.

But he claimed a ‘ fog of self- doubt’ had descended in the intervening 18 months, with Brexit watered down – and the Government ‘never actually went to Brussels and turned it into a negotiating offer’.

He said: ‘Instead, we dithered. We burned through negotiating capital. We agreed to hand over a £40billion exit fee, with no discussion of our future economic relationship. We accepted the jurisdiction of the European Court over key aspects of the withdrawal agreement. Worst of all, we allowed the question of the Northern Irish border... to become so politically charged as to dominate the debate.’

No Cabinet ministers attended the speech. But he was surrounded by about 50 Eurosceptic MPs, including Mr Davis, Iain Duncan Smith and Mr Rees-Mogg.

In a sober speech that contained none of his trademark jokes, Mr Johnson said the Chequers deal would leave the UK ‘volunteering for economic vassalage’ and make Britain a nation of ‘rule-takers’. He added: ‘It is not too late to save Brexit. We have time in these negotiations. We have changed tack once and we can change again.

‘The problem is not that we failed to make the case for a free-trade agreement of the kind spelt out at Lancaster House. We haven’t even tried. We must try now, because we will not have another chance to get this right.’

In a swipe at Michael Gove, who has argued that problems with the Brexit deal could be resolved after the UK goes, Mr Johnson said: ‘It is absolute nonsense to imagine – as I fear some colleagues do – that we can somehow afford to make a

botched treaty now, and break and reset the bone later on.’

Tory MP Conor Burns, an ally of Mr Johnson, insisted he was not launching a leadership bid, adding: ‘We want a change of policy under this Prime Minister, not a change of prime minister.’

But the speech was seen as a marker for a possible leadership challenge if, as expected, Mrs May refuses to change tack.

In the Commons, Eurosceptic MP Andrea Jenkyns asked Mrs May: ‘At what point it was decided that Brexit means Remain?’ Mrs May said: ‘At absolutely no point – Brexit continues to mean Brexit.’ Mrs May’s allies said she had bought a ‘breathing space’ after seeing off a Commons bid to keep Britain in a customs union. After she addressed MPs last night, Mr Clarke announced he was withdrawing his call for her to quit.

HIS language was measured, avoiding the PG Wodehouse-style flourishes that mark so many of his speeches. To Theresa May personally he was courteous, paying just tribute to her ‘courage and resilience’.

But the message of Boris Johnson’s resignation speech was unmistakable. In a few well-aimed phrases, he laid out a damning charge sheet against the Prime Minister and the Government she leads.

They had rowed back on the stirring plans for Brexit outlined in Mrs May’s Lancaster House speech last year, he said. They had also ‘burned through negotiating capital’, while saying one thing to the EU and pretending another to the electorate.

Amid a ‘fog of self-doubt’, we were now threatened with the ‘miserable permanent limbo’ of ‘BRINO – Brexit In Name Only’.

This paper endorses much of Mr Johnson’s analysis. It is indeed deplorable that our negotiators have displayed such abject defeatism, when the EU stands to suffer so much more from a no-deal Brexit.

As International Trade Secretary Liam Fox points out, EU countries would lose up to 8 per cent of their economies if the talks collapse without an agreement.

Meanwhile, booming countries outside the EU are begging for trade deals with post-Brexit Britain.

As for the Remainiac Tories who call for a ‘government of national unity’ – meaning unity against the people – their betrayal of party and country is beneath contempt.

But would a different Tory leader (no prizes for guessing whom Boris has in mind) do a better job of pacifying the party’s warring factions than Mrs May?

Will Boris’s speech prove as devastating to her as Sir Geoffrey Howe’s killer blow to Margaret Thatcher (and how significant that he spoke from the same spot)?

For the moment, the answer must surely be No. But if the Prime Minister is to survive – as this paper hopes she will – she must cast off that fog of self-doubt. As Mr Johnson says, it is not too late to salvage Brexit. It is up to Mrs May to prove him right.