Brexit: are the Tory rebels right?
Has there ever before been, asked Andrew Lilico on Capx, “such a concerted effort, across the UK’S academic, media and political classes, to undermine the British position in a major negotiation”? These people never tire of doing Brexit down, endlessly lamenting that our cause is hopeless, that everything we do is wrong, that the EU negotiators are always right, and that the talks are doomed to failure. This month, around 20 Tory MPS added their voices to this chorus of despair, said Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail, by signalling that they were ready to vote against the Government over Theresa May’s plans to enshrine the exact date of our departure from the EU in law. They insisted that their intention was not to delay or thwart Brexit, but it’s clear that “some (or many) of them” are desperate to do just that.
No, it isn’t, said Andrew Grice in The Independent. These Tories just think that fixing the Brexit date in stone is a mistake, given that a few extra days or weeks after March 2019, in the event of last-minute hitches, could make all the difference in securing a decent deal. To brand them as “saboteurs” and “mutineers”, as the right-wing press did, is outrageous. These rebels deserve our full backing, agreed The Guardian. The need for proper parliamentary scrutiny of government plans has never been greater, given the high stakes involved and the lack of careful consideration given by the Brexit brigade to the knock-on effects of leaving the EU. For instance, they’ve never given proper thought to how Northern Ireland’s border with the Republic of Ireland will work after we pull out of the single market and customs union. With only weeks to go before the EU summit that will decide whether Brexit talks move on to discussing future trade arrangements, this is just one of the separation issues that remain unresolved.
The Cabinet has been all over the place on Brexit, said The Times, but there are now promising signs of progress on the vexed question of the UK’S “divorce bill”. May has let it be known that she is ready to double Britain’s offer, to something in the region of s40bn to s50bn, with the blessing not only of the Remain-voting Philip Hammond, but of the Brexit cheerleaders Michael Gove and Boris Johnson, as long as the EU, in return, offers assurances about a future trade deal. The consensus among the divided Cabinet on this issue is “no small thing” – and EU leaders should acknowledge this step forward in their December summit by clearing the way for trade talks to begin. “Further stalling will make a ‘no deal’ Brexit considerably more likely.”