MP Johnson: Give us 2nd Brexit vote
No, not BoJo.. brother JoJo quits over exit deal
BORIS Johnson’s brother yesterday quit as Theresa May’s transport minister over Brexit and joined calls for a second referendum.
Remain supporter Jo Johnson said he could not support the Prime Minister’s Brexit deal and said the choice being offered was between “vassalage and chaos”.
He warned that the withdrawal deal would leave the UK outside the EU but “wholly subject” to its rules.
Despite being at odds over Brexit, Leave campaign cheerleader Boris tweeted his “boundless admiration” for his little brother.
He added: “We may not have agreed about Brexit but we’re united in dismay at the intellectually and politically indefensible UK position.”
Jo, 46, warned: “Britain stands on the brink of the greatest crisis since World War II.”
He said the deal being finalised by May and the EU was “a failure of British statecraft unseen since the Suez crisis”, when
Anthony Eden ended up quitting as PM after his Tory government abandoned an invasion of Egypt to retake control of the Suez Canal in 1956.
He branded the deal, which is being finalised in Brussels and London, “a terrible mistake”.
He said it would leave the UK “economically weakened with no say in the EU rules it must follow”.
But the alternative, a no-deal Brexit, would “inflict untold damage on our nation”, he warned.
Jo urged May to give the people of the UK a chance to change their minds in a referendum.
He added: “I believe it is entirely right to go back to the people and ask them to confirm their decision to leave the EU.”
He then called on the people to have “the final say on whether we leave with the Prime Minister’s deal or without it. To do anything less will do grave damage to our democracy”.
Boris, 54, stepped down as foreign secretary in July, saying he could not support May’s Chequers strategy.
Jo wrote: “My brother Boris, who led the Leave campaign, is as unhappy with the Government’s proposals as I am.
“Indeed, he recently observed that the proposed arrangements were ‘substantially worse than staying in the EU’.
“On that he is unquestionably right.”
The shock resignation came a few hours after May’s de facto deputy, David Lidington, insisted he was confident that Tory MPs would back the Government’s deal once it is published.
Former Tory education secretary Justine Greening praised Jo for “standing up for what he believes in”.
Shadow Brexit Minister Jenny Chapman said: “Jo Johnson is the 18th minister to resign from Theresa May’s Government.
“She has lost all authority and is incapable of negotiating a Brexit deal within her own party, let alone with the EU.
“Theresa May is in office but not in power.”
A Downing Street spokesman said: “We will not under any circumstances have a second referendum.”