Is Boris about to come on board and back May?
BORIS Johnson signalled he could back Theresa May’s plan last night out of fear of losing Brexit altogether.
The former foreign secretary warned there was an ‘appreciable risk that we will not leave at all’ after MPs voted to hold votes on an alternative strategy.
In a climbdown, Mr Johnson said the choice was between voting for an ‘appalling’ option or risk further delay and ‘parliamentary jiggery pokery’.
He indicated he could vote for the withdrawal agreement if he was convinced the next stage of the negotiations would see a change in tack.
‘We are now faced with an even wider range of destinations – second referendum, general election, longer extension or the Boles/Letwin model,’ he said. ‘None of which correspond remotely to what the people voted for. None of which delivers Brexit.
‘We can either vote for this appalling deal and get a kind of pseudo Brexit over the line, or we can run the risk of further delay, confusion and parliamentary jiggery pokery.’
Mr Johnson said ‘forces of darkness’ had worked to frustrate Brexit, saying he feared June 016 was receding ever further into public memory.
He had previously urged MPs to vote down Mrs May’s agreement for a third time if it was put to another vote.
But, speaking at an event for Daily Telegraph subscribers, he said: ‘If people like me are to support this deal, something I bitterly oppose, then we need to see the proof that the second phase of negotiations will be different from the first.’
Asked if he would vote for it, he said: ‘I am not there yet.’ He said that he would not support the Prime Minister ‘unless I hear clearly that there will be a Canada-style deal’.
In a swipe at the Chancellor and other ministers, he said: ‘Can you remember a speech by Philip Hammond saying why Brexit is a good idea? He treats it like an adverse weather event he has to manage. Like some terrible thing he has to cope with and that’s no good.
‘Brexit offers huge opportunities and we have to tell a story.’
Asked whether Mrs May’s deal was worse than staying in the EU, he replied: ‘In some ways it is – why would you leave a club to be run by its members? I do find it deeply unattractive.’