Johnson appoints hardline Eurosceptic to his EU divorce team

‘We have seen ... that if you try to accommodate both sides and sit on the fence you get splinters’

BORIS JOHNSON has appointed a combative Eurosceptic as a senior adviser to his EU divorce team, The Daily Telegraph can reveal, in a sign that supporters of a no-deal Brexit with infrastructure on the Irish border are in the ascendancy on his leadership team.

Daniel Moylan – a former senior Johnson lieutenant during his days as London mayor – has been an implacable opponent of Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement and the backstop.

Brexiteers welcomed Mr Moylan as a breath of fresh air and a clear sign that Mr Johnson was serious about his promise to leave the EU on Oct 31, with or without a deal.

“We have seen in the past that if you try to accommodate both sides and sit on the fence you get splinters, so I very much welcome this stronger approach,” said one pro-brexit Conservative MP.

But the 63-year-old’s appointment was met with a mixed reception among moderates who have backed Mrs May’s deal, with one MP from that group observing that “we really are doomed” if Mr Moylan was in charge.

Since the EU referendum, Mr Moylan has been a waspish presence on Twitter, frequently clashing with anyone who backed the May deal or the Irish backstop – until he deleted his account last week, apparently in preparation for the new role.

Mr Moylan’s installation as a senior Brexit adviser in Mr Johnson’s campaign has coincided with a hardening of position that culminated this week with the warning that even if the Irish agreed to time-limit the backstop it would not be sufficient to pass the deal.

A source close to Mr Johnson sought to play down the appointment, and said Mr Moylan could be one of several senior Brexit advisers, adding that no formal decision on jobs in a future administration had been taken.

Interestingly – and perhaps in a sign of where Mr Johnson’s real bottom line on the backstop may lie – Mr Moylan did say that if the backstop was “rendered time-limited or terminable at the sole discretion of the British government” then it could be acceptable.

However, Mr Moylan’s position on the Irish border question points to the rising risk of a head-on collision with the Irish government if Mr Johnson becomes the prime minister next week.

Mr Moylan was an early and vocal critic of Mrs May’s decision to guarantee that there would be “no infrastructure” or “related checks and controls” at the Irish border after Brexit – a pledge that Mr Johnson’s backers now want to dilute.

Instead, Mr Moylan argued in September 2018 that, while mindful of the “legitimate anxieties of the Republic and Irish nationalists”, Ireland should accept “a minimally visible trade border” in Ireland – the very thing Dublin says it is determined to prevent.

It is not clear what role Mr Moylan will take in any new Johnson administration, whether a behind-the-scenes policy adviser, strategy director or front line negotiator – but he has little experience of any role at that level.