Boris Johnson has weighed in on Theresa May’s reportedly imminent Brexit deal with the European Union, which is expected to keep the United Kingdom inside the bloc’s Customs Union.
“If this is indeed the deal that is to be placed before Cabinet on Tuesday, it is an absolute stinker,” wrote the former Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary and two-time Mayor of London in The Sun.
May’s deal, based on the Chequers plan which prompted Johnson and former Brexit Secretary David Davis to resign from her Cabinet, would see Britain agree to a ‘common rulebook’ with the EU on goods and agri-products — identical to the EU rulebook, and interpreted by EU judges — and remain inside the bloc’s Customs Union, as a so-called ‘backstop’ solution to the vexed question of keeping the Irish border open.
“It means we are proposing to hand over an amazing £40 billion for absolutely nothing in return,” Johnson wrote.
“For the first time in a thousand years we will have to accept foreign made laws – with no power to change or make those laws.
“We will be a vassal state – a colony – for at least 18 months, and probably more… [W]hen Brussels says ‘Jump’, the British answer will be, ‘How high?'”
Johnson believes the “rigmarole” around the border between the Republic of Ireland and the British province of Northern Ireland, which is relatively unimportant in economic terms, has been “designed by the EU – and those in the UK who want us to remain in the EU in all but name – in order to frustrate any future bid for independence.”
Brussels has been insisting that the only way to keep the EU border with Northern Ireland open after the United Kingdom leaves is for the province to remain within the Customs Union and Single Market.
Theresa May appears to have accepted that an open border with the Irish Republic is absolutely vital — despite its regular exploitation by organised criminals and illegal migrants — but cannot leave Northern Ireland in the Customs Union by itself, as this would lead to customs checks between Britain’s Home Nations.
She is instead pursuing regulatory alignment with the EU and a ‘backstop’ which would keep the entire country in the Customs Union as a “compromise” — but this would effectively preclude Britain from regaining an independent trade policy after Brexit.
“[W]e are being asked to choose between the break up of the [British] Union – at least for economic purposes – or the subjugation of the whole country. We are choosing wholesale subjection,” Johnson warned.
“We need to stop before it is too late,” he added — although he still seems unwilling to actually launch a leadership challenge.