Boris ‘clean exit’ pledge wins over top Eurosceptics
BORIS JOHNSON has secured the backing of some of the Conservatives’ staunchest Brexiteers after privately declaring that he will deliver a “clean, managed Brexit”.
The former foreign secretary told Eurosceptic grandees last week that Theresa May’s deal was “dead”.
The assurances, made in a meeting behind closed doors on Wednesday, have won Mr Johnson the endorsement of Steve Baker, the deputy chairman of the backbench European Research Group (ERG) of Eurosceptics and the leader of the group of 28 Brexiteer “holdouts” who refused to back Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement.
In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Baker, who quit as Brexit minister last year, said he would now put his “complete faith” in Mr Johnson rather than stand in the contest himself.
Priti Patel, the former international development secretary and another leading member of the group, has also decided to back Mr Johnson, saying only he could “deliver Brexit and restore trust in politics”. Sources said that at least two grandees are preparing to follow suit, having become convinced that Mr Johnson, the current front-runner, is the best-placed candidate to rescue the Conservative Party from the electoral obliteration they fear it faces if it fails to deliver Brexit.
“The only thing that can get us back from the dead is getting us out,” one said.
Mr Baker and Ms Patel’s endorsements follow those of Jacob Rees-Mogg, the ERG chairman, and David Jones, another prominent member of the group.
Dominic Raab, Mr Johnson’s main rival for Brexiteer supporters, is backed by David Davis, the former Brexit secretary, along with a series of ERG members, and has also pledged to secure Brexit by the current exit date of October 31.
In a separate interview with The Telegraph, Mr Raab accuses rivals such as Michael Gove of “naivety” by indicating that they could
extend the deadline. Mr Raab said he was the only candidate “being absolutely resolute about our intention and our resolve to leave at the end of October”.
The former Brexit secretary, who had held separate talks with the backbench Brexiteers, refuses to accept claims that the former foreign secretary is best placed to beat Jeremy Corbyn in a general election.
But Mr Baker said: “Boris has been crystal clear with me that [under his leadership] we would leave the EU by October 31, with or without a deal. We agree we should seek a set of relationships … but not via this Withdrawal Agreement, which we are agreed is dead. Boris has said to me he is for a cleanly managed Brexit.”
Mr Johnson’s phrasing, confirmed by two others at the meeting, adopts the title of a report, A Clean Managed Brexit, publicly released by Mr Baker earlier the same day and backed by a host of senior Brexiteers, along with Esther McVey, a rival candidate.
It states that “ideally” the UK’s exit would be achieved with a new free trade agreement, which the paper says could come into force following a temporary period adopting the current trading arrangements. If that cannot be achieved, the UK should be prepared to leave without a deal.
One senior MP at the meeting, held in the Commons, said: “The understanding we had was that the Baker paper thrust, if not the detail, was very much where he was coming from.
“People who were more worried about him took comfort from it. Boris said the treaty is dead. That is obvious, but well done Boris. Why can’t Hunt and Gove see that the treaty is dead?”
A third MP stated: “He agreed with the proposals. Dom Raab just treated it as a piece of paper.”
Explaining his decision not to stand, Mr Baker said his support had been “incredibly honouring and humbling” but that “this time I won’t make it to the final two”.
He added: “I am going to put my complete faith in Boris Johnson because he understands that unless we deliver a Brexit worth having in the opinion of Brexit Party voters, than we will suffer a Jeremy Corbyn government with all the horrors that would mean.”
Mr Baker said Labour’s win in last week’s by-election in Peterborough, showed that “the best we could hope for if we don’t deliver a Brexit worth having is to be wiped out as we split our vote and let Labour through.”
Meanwhile, writing today, Gavin Williamson, the former chief whip who is helping to organise Mr Johnson’s campaign, admits that he would not have supported his colleague “a few years ago”, but he was now “the solution to the situation we find ourselves in”.