Now Remainer activist gets policy job at No10
A FORMER pro-Remain activist has been appointed as a Downing Street special adviser amid Tory fears Rishi Sunak’s Government could go soft on Brexit.
Will Dry, co-founder of Our Future Our Choice, a pro-EU group formed after the Brexit referendum, is now part of No 10’s policy and briefing unit.
Mr Dry previously called for a second referendum and demanded Brexit should be halted during negotiations with Brussels.
It emerged days after the Prime Minister was forced to deny reports that the Government was considering moving closer to Brussels with a ‘Swiss-style’ relationship with the EU, which led to anger on Tory backbenches.
Former Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage said: ‘Will Dry is one of the most prominent Remain campaigners in the country, so he will feel right at home in Rishi’s No 10. How much more evidence do we need that this Government are selling out on Brexit?’
In a 2018 article for pro-EU newspaper The New European, Mr Dry, then co-president of the group, urged then Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to back a second referendum, claiming ‘Brexit is not democratically sustainable’.
He said he considered stopping Brexit as the ‘political struggle of our lifetime’ and urged readers to put pressure on Mr Corbyn.
He then deferred university for a year to help run the campaign, appearing on media outlets.
Remarkably, the former Oxford student was a Leave voter but said he regretted his decision.
No 10 confirmed Mr Dry’s appointment but refused to give any other details. It comes amid growing speculation the Government could abandon the aim of removing EU laws from the statute book by the end of next year.
Business Secretary Grant Shapps and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt are said to have doubts about the value of the exercise.
A senior Whitehall source said: ‘There are thousands of pieces of legislation involved and many of them would have to be replaced with our own laws.
‘Is that really what we want to make the priority when we are facing so many other challenges?’
The Brexit Freedoms Bill was pioneered by former business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg as part of government plans to slash red tape and boost growth.
It aimed to remove an estimated 2,400 EU-derived laws by the end of 2023. Mr Sunak has quietly dropped a pledge to conduct the review during his first 100 days in office.
An ex-Cabinet minister warned the PM against the move, saying: ‘It would cause great concern about his commitment to Brexit, particularly after the suggestions that some in government are pushing to unpick the Brexit deal and replace it with an arrangement like Switzerland’s, which would be totally unacceptable.’
Downing Street said the 2023 target was still in legislation going through Parliament but declined to say whether the Prime Minister was committed to it.
‘Selling out on Brexit’