It’s my deal or no deal
BORIS JOHNSON will give MPS a “my deal or no deal” ultimatum tomorrow after the EU suggested there would be no further Brexit extension.
The Prime Minister said “now is the moment for us to get Brexit done” after Britain and the EU came to a last-minute agreement in Brussels yesterday. He made clear tomorrow’s Commons vote was the final chance for Britain to leave the EU with a deal, or a no-deal Brexit would go ahead on Oct 31.
But he faces a plot by a Remain alliance of opposition MPS and Tory rebels to make the deal conditional on a second referendum. They could table an amendment to tomorrow’s so-called “meaningful vote” which would mean that if the deal passed, Brexit would be delayed while the country chose between the Johnson deal and Remain.
Mr Johnson will attempt to get his deal through Parliament without the support of the DUP, which said it “drives a coach and horses” through the Good Friday Agreement.
Some Tory hardliners, including Iain Duncan Smith, said they would wait until tomorrow morning before making up their minds how to vote.
Mr Johnson returns to London this morning to take charge of an intense whipping operation to persuade Brexiteers, Tory rebels and some Labour MPS to back his deal. The Daily Telegraph understands between 10 and 15 Labour MPS are prepared to back it, to avoid the risk of a no deal. Their support would almost certainly be decisive in a vote that remains too close to call. If Mr Johnson loses, he will be obliged by law to write to Brussels to request an extension to Article 50. But he received a huge boost as Jean-claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, appeared to rule out a further extension, saying: “This deal means there is no need for any kind of prolongation.” The Telegraph learnt Mr Juncker agreed to play down the possibility of a further extension after asking Mr Johnson what would help get the deal through Parliament.
It means the Prime Minister can exert pressure on MPS to back the deal on the basis that even if he asks for an extension, it may not be granted.
The deal, which was finally agreed at 10am yesterday, does away with the Northern Irish backstop, which would have kept the province in the EU cus- toms union and single market if no trade deal was agreed. Instead, North- ern Ireland remains in the UK customs territory but with customs declarations on goods crossing the Irish Sea and limited checks on goods crossing the border north to south.
The DUP said the deal threatened the Union as it meant Northern Ireland would be treated differently from the rest of the UK. Nigel Dodds, the DUP’S Westminster leader, said Mr Johnson had been “too eager by far to get a deal at any cost”.
If the deal is agreed, Britain will ne- gotiate a free-trade agreement with the EU, with a deal on fisheries to be signed by July next year. The Withdrawal Agreement Bill – the legislation needed to enact the deal – is ready to be tabled in Parliament on Monday. Yesterday as the Government’s whipping operation got into full swing, Michael Gove chaired a meeting of 180 Tory MPS to explain the deal, with 11 out of 20 Tory rebels who had the whip removed after voting against the Government briefed in a separate meeting by Robert Buckland, the Justice Secretary.
Meetings were also held with individual Labour MPS who have indicated they could back a deal, and Sajid Javid, on a trip to the US, phoned MPS from Washington DC to beg them to vote for the deal. Ronnie Campbell, a Labour MP who abstained when Theresa May’s Brexit was last put to a vote, said: “I’m likely to vote for it. We’ve got to get something across the line.
“The people of this country are just
and tactical failures of the Theresa May years cannot be fully undone, and the PM has been hemmed in by the despicable Benn Act.
Many compromises have had to be made, and in some cases, deeply regrettable ones.
It is unclear whether the UK will be able to stop bad laws during the transition, although it will hopefully all be over by December 2020 (there may be pressure to extend the transition further).
We are handing over too much cash. There ought to have been a better way to deal with a number of other issues, including citizens’ rights and Northern Ireland. The European Court of Justice may have a role in determining disputes with the European Union on the Withdrawal Agreement. We will probably remain tied into the European Court of Human Rights. Yet
‘Brexiteers should also remember that this isn’t the final battle: there is more combat to come’
this deal is nevertheless more than merely tolerable or acceptable: it is remarkable in the circumstances.
It is the best possible Brexit that any prime minister could realistically deliver in the face of this pro-remain Parliament, the rigged constitutional stalemate and a scandalously hostile Establishment.
It is also the only certain way to achieve a real Brexit: another referendum could be calamitous.
A Remainer alliance could seize control and cancel Brexit altogether. The current bunch of MPS are implacably opposed to no deal, and the constitution has been smashed to empower them, so it’s hard to see how Mr Johnson could genuinely force us out without a deal on October 31.
It is on that basis that I would urge all Eurosceptics to publicly back the Prime Minister’s deal at the earliest possible opportunity.
I write as a hard-core Brexiteer who opposed Mrs May’s nonsense all the way. This time it’s different and, in practice, perhaps our last chance.
Brexiteers should also remember that this isn’t the final battle: there is more combat to come. As soon as this deal is ratified, the UK must start negotiating trade deals with as many economies as possible, thus signalling to the EU that it is absolutely serious in its attempt to diversify its options, while sorting out its customs infrastructure and rebooting its economy.
For that, the UK will need a radically pro-brexit Tory government with the largest possible majority and nerves of steel. Nothing is ever perfect in human affairs. This is as good as it gets.