Cabinet Remainers are “delighted” with the series of massive concessions Theresa May has made in Brussels, with the President of the EU Council bragging the UK will be effectively powerless during the two-year transition period.
Donald Tusk boasted that the deal would mean the UK would be stripped of her decision-making powers in the bloc during the transition period but would still be subject to its laws, demanding the supposedly sovereign nation “will respect the whole of EU law including new law.
“It will respect budgetary commitments; it will respect judicial oversight; and of course all related obligations,” he added.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker likewise celebrated the plan to give EU citizens superior rights to British nationals, saying: “Brexit created great uncertainty for [EU] citizens and for their families.
“Today we bring back the certainty… We have made sure that their rights will remain the same after the UK has left the European Union.”
Support for the Prime Minister’s “pathetic” deal came from some of her Cabinet’s 18 (out of 25) Remain supporters, including Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip ‘Remainer Phil’ Hammond, who tweeted his “delight” that a deal had been agreed with Brussels and called it a “positive step.”
In October, senior Tory peer Lord Lawson accused Hammond of attempting to “sabotage” Brexit by failing to prepare the UK for a ‘No Deal’ scenario, and Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party expressed their “deep concern” about the Chancellor for “frustrating” Brexit.
Scandal-hit First Secretary of State Damian Green hailed the “Breakthrough in Brussels”, calling it a “big successful moment” for the Theresa May. The Prime Minister’s chief of staff Gavin Barwell also hailed the “progress” made in negotiations.
Former Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg — a member of the Remain-backing unholy trinity who recently met with European Commission chief negotiator Michel Barnier, tweeted that it was “Game, set and match for the EU on money and EU citizens.”
Clegg’s book How to Stop Brexit, which insists “there is nothing remotely inevitable about Brexit” and claims it “would certainly be the best thing for Britain” if the public’s vote for Brexit was reversed, was recently voted best non-fiction book by a parliamentarian in a secret ballot of MPs and Lords — a telling indicator of how much support there really is for a full, clean Brexit among Britain’s political class.
Speaking on the BBC’s Daily Politics, UKIP leader Henry Bolton slammed May’s deal, calling it a “total surrender to the European Commission” and estimating that “80 per cent to 90 per cent of it was actually drafted in Brussels”.
Brexit architect Nigel Farage also rejected any idea the deal represented a “victory”, telling Sky News: “It’s a victory if you think giving away a gargantuan amount of money away is a good thing.
“We have put a lot on the table for absolutely nothing guaranteed in return,” he added, clearly exasperated.
On the continuing role of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in overseeing the rights of EU citizens in Britain, Farage explained that “What it does is create two class of citizens living in the United Kingdom… which is a totally unacceptable situation.”
When the Sky News anchor stated that it would be up to the British courts to decide what cases get referred to the ECJ, Farage pointed out the “europhile” nature of the judiciary, and predicted “many [cases] will go there.
“If you look at the document at Article 38 it makes absolutely clear that the ECJ will continue to have supremacy,” Farage explained.
“It will be: ‘the ultimate arbiter’, as the document says.”
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