FORMER Tory Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told MPs in his resignation speech: ‘It is not too late to save Brexit. We have time in these negotiations. we have changed tack once and we can change again … It was clear last night that there was no majority in this House for a return to the Customs Union… not the miserable permanent Limbo of Chequers, not the democratic disaster of on-going harmonisation, with no way out and no say for UK.’
Johnson said: ‘In the last 18 months a fog of self-doubt has descended’ on the Brexit negotiations. We dithered and we burned through our negotiating capital. We agreed to hand over a £40 billion exit fee with no discussion of our future economic relationship.
‘We accepted the jurisdiction of the European Court key aspects of the withdrawal agreement. And worst of all, we allowed the question of the Northern Irish border, which had hitherto been assumed on all sides to be a readily soluble one, to become so politically charged to dominate the debate … The result of accepting the EU’s rule books and of our proposals for a fantastical Heath Robinson customs arrangement, is that we have much better scope to do free trade deals than the Chequers paper actually acknowledges, which we should all frankly acknowledge, because if we pretend otherwise, we continue to make the fatal mistake of underestimating the intelligence of the public, saying one thing to the EU about what we’re doing and saying another to the electorate.
‘Given that in important ways this is BINO or BRINO – Brexit in Name Only, I’m of course unable to support it and I have to now speak out against it.’ Johnson gave no indication that he was prepared to challenge May, and did not enlarge on his role in the debacle.
Earlier, Prime Minister’s Questions opened with Tory MP for Morley and Outwood, Andrea Jenkyns, asking: ‘Can the Prime Minister inform the House, at what point it was decided that Brexit means Remain?’
PM May replied: ‘Can I say to my honourable friend, at absolutely no point because Brexit continues to mean Brexit,’ to which Jenkyns responded ‘I hope so’.
The day before, on Tuesday, Jenkyns had said it is time for a ‘new Prime Minister’ who believes in Brexit, telling Talk Radio: ‘I have said for the last few weeks that we do need a new Prime Minister. I would like to stick to that, I would like to see a Brexiteer in place.’
