Boris Johnson labels May’s Brexit plan ‘a disaster’
Attack by leading Brexiter increases pressure on PM as she fights to save Chequers plan
Boris Johnson has drawn up the battle lines for a Conservative party fight that could determine the UK’s future in Europe and Theresa May’s in Downing Street, as he denounced the prime minister’s Chequers Brexit plan as a “disaster” for Britain.
As MPs return to Westminster after the summer break, Mrs May is facing a battle to save her Chequers compromise plan in the face of concerted opposition from Tory Eurosceptics, including the former foreign secretary.
In his weekly Daily Telegraph column, Mr Johnson said Mrs May’s plan, which was agreed by the cabinet at her country retreat in July, would leave the UK with “two-thirds of diddly squat” and that the prime minister was going “into battle with the white flag fluttering over our leading tank”.
Conservative MPs in the Eurosceptic European Research Group will this week discuss a rival plan — espoused by the former Brexit secretary David Davis — which would see Britain have a looser Canada-style trading relationship with the EU.
Mrs May opposed Mr Davis’s plan, arguing it would create a hard border in Ireland and disrupt Britain’s trading relations with Europe; both Mr Johnson and Mr Davis resigned after the Chequers meeting.
Pressure on Mrs May will intensify this month ahead of the Conservative conference in Birmingham, at which Mr Johnson and other Eurosceptics including Jacob Rees-Mogg are expected to be feted by activists for their opposition to Mrs May’s compromise plan.
The daunting political challenge facing Mrs May was thrown into even sharper relief on Sunday when Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, said he “strongly opposed” the “illegal” Chequers plan, because it sought to unpick the single market.
Mrs May wants to keep the UK aligned with the EU on goods and agriculture, but outside the single market for services and Brussels’ rules on free movement.
In an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Mr Barnier said: “If we let the British cherry pick which of our regulations to follow, that would have serious consequences: all sorts of other third countries could insist that we offer them the same deal.
“That would be the end of the single market and the European project. I am often accused of being dogmatic in the UK, but the truth is I’m only protecting our fundamental interests.”
Mrs May’s dilemma is that she might have to give further ground to Brussels on issues such as free movement and customs co-operation to secure a deal with the EU, while many in her party believe she has already gone too far.
The prime minister hinted of further concessions to come in a carefully phrased article for the Sunday Telegraph, when she said: “I will not be pushed into accepting compromises on the Chequers proposals that are not in our national interest.”
The moment of truth for Mrs May will come this autumn when — assuming she concludes an exit deal with Brussels — she presents it to the House of Commons for a “meaningful vote”.
Mr Davis has already warned he will vote against Mrs May’s plan, while even some moderates believe it represents the worst of all worlds for Britain. Nick Boles, a former ally of David Cameron, said on Monday it would be voted down.
Mr Boles told Radio 4’s Today programme that the chances of Mrs May winning parliamentary backing for any deal based on the Chequers plan were “very very small — as close to zero as you can have in politics”.