Ex-Cabinet minister Theresa Villiers fears Brexit 'dilution'
2 min read
A former Cabinet minister has warned Theresa May against delivering a “dilution of Brexit”.
Theresa Villiers said there was a “real danger” the final Brexit deal struck between the UK and the European Union could “keep us in the EU in all but name”.
Chancellor Philip Hammond riled Tory Brexit supporters this week when he said the UK wanted only “very modest” changes in its relationship with the EU.
He was swiftly slapped down by No 10 but not before the head of the 60-strong European Research Group of Tory MPs demanded a “fundamental” change in the Government's approach.
Aides to the Prime Minister have risked further anger by saying she is prepared to stay in the customs union longer than the two year transition period, according to the Sunday Times.
Anti-EU MP Ms Villiers said since Mrs May laid out her vision for Brexit a year ago “the direction of travel seems to have gone in only one single direction: towards a dilution of Brexit”.
In an article for the Sunday Telegraph, she wrote: “Willingness to compromise is both necessary and right, but if the Government goes too much further down that path, there is a real danger that it will sign up to an agreement which could keep us in the EU in all but name and which would therefore fail to respect the referendum result.”
The former Northern Ireland Secretary said quitting the single market and customs union, controlling UK cash, its border and its laws and having the final say on trade policy were fundamentals to Brexit.
She added: “Put simply, without the freedom to diverge from EU laws in the future, we will not really have left.”
It comes after Jacob Rees-Mogg, the chair of the European Research Group, said the Tories would lose the next election if they delivered Brexit “in name only”
Meanwhile, the Sunday Telegraph reports growing concerns among top government figures and Tory MPs that civil servants are “forcing” Mrs May into a soft Brexit.
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