Boris Johnson heaps fresh pressure on Theresa May with call for 'super Canada' Brexit deal
4 min read
Boris Johnson has challenged Theresa May to show she has the "guts" to deliver Brexit in a fresh intervention on the eve of Conservative conference.
The former Foreign Secretary - who quit the Cabinet in protest at the Prime Minister's Brexit plan - once again urged Mrs May to "chuck Chequers", and threw his weight behind a so-called "Super Canada" deal.
And, in a 4,600-word essay published just before the Conservative conference gets underway in Birmingham, he called on the Prime Minister to push the EU for more time to avoid a hard border in Northern Ireland.
Taking aim at Mrs May's existing plan in a piece for the Telegraph, the Tory heavyweight said: "The Chequers proposals are the worst of both worlds. They are a moral and intellectual humiliation for this country. It is almost incredible that after two years this should be the opening bid of the British government."
Mr Johnson demanded that the Prime Minister "stop wasting time on a solution that can never be in the long term interests of this country" and said a political declaration with the EU - currently expected this autumn - should instead be unveiled "by early 2019".
This would, he argued, allow both sides to use Britain's two-year withdrawal period from the EU to "negotiate and bring into force a Super Canada-type free trade agreement".
He added: "This is a vital part of the package. It makes no sense whatever to embark on a so-called Blind Brexit, whereby we sign a withdrawal agreement, but without specifying (yet again) what kind of future economic relationship we want.
"There is no way MPs could or should vote to hand over £40bn to the EU without any agreement about the future of the relationship. We would be abandoning our principal leverage in the talks."
NORTHERN IRELAND 'ANNEXATION'
Mr Johnson also tried to counter criticisms that Brexiteers have yet to come up with a workable solution to keep the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland open - a key sticking point in talks with the EU.
Mrs May has said her Chequers plan - which aims to limit checks across the border by aligning with EU rules on goods and agricultural products - remains the only way to avoid a hard border.
But the EU has heaped scorn on the plans and insisted that the UK agrees to include a more stringent "backstop" - creating an effective customs border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK - in the withdrawal agreement both sides are looking to sign.
Mr Johnson said those proposals would give "Brussels the perpetual right to the economic annexation of Northern Ireland" and instead called for the Irish border question to be tackled as part of the later Brexit deal on future economic arrangements with the EU.
"I recognise that this would be a difficult step, given the diplomatic energy squandered on the backstop, but it cannot be acceptable that the constitution of the UK should be held to ransom in this way, or the Belfast Agreement subverted in the manner proposed by the EU," he said.
In a direct dig at the Prime Minister's strategy, Mr Johnson said "two years of dither and delay", including an "abortive" general election had left the UK "coming up hard against the deadline of March 29 next year".
"If we had started off with conviction and confidence we could certainly have negotiated a Super Canada deal in the time available, but the abortive election and the endless disputations about the Irish backstop mean that we have blown that chance," he said.
The former Cabinet minister's lengthy intervention won swift praise from Tory Brexiteer Steve Baker, who called it a "brilliant, pivotal article".
Fellow Eurosceptic Andrea Jenykns meanwhile hailed it as a "fantastic" article by a man "who truly believes in Britain".
But Labour heaped scorn on the lengthy intervention, with Shadow Cabinet Office minister Jon Trickett saying: “It's clearer than ever that the Tories have run out of ideas. All they have left is internal warfare and continued austerity."
Mr Johnson's latest blast at the Prime Minister came as two senior Tories hit out at the Government's direction ahead of the party's annual gathering in Birmingham.
In an article for PoliticsHome's sister title The House magazine, serving minister Sam Gyimah accused the party of ditching its pro-business credentials, saying the Government veered "between talking business down, ignoring voters’ concerns, and telling businesses to shut up".
Ex-Cabinet minister and leading Brexiteer Priti Patel - who was sacked by Mrs May earlier this year - meanwhile blasted the Prime Minister for leading a "nanny state government" more interested in banning things than implementing Conservative policies.
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