The UK farming minister quit the government over Theresa May’s Brexit Thursday, citing the forthcoming postponement of Britain’s departure from the European Union allowing Britain to be ‘dictated’ to by Brussels in the future.
George Eustice, a seasoned Brexit campaigner who even stood for election for UKIP in the 1990s before becoming a Conservative member of parliament and then junior minister tendered his resignation from the cabinet to the Prime Minister in a strongly worded letter Thursday. Saying he left the cabinet so he could speak freely on Brexit, unbound by responsibility to the government, Eustice said: “We must be ready to face down the European Union here and now.”
In the most damning passage of his letter, Eustice told the Prime Minister: “I have stuck with the Government through a series of undignified retreats. However I fear that developments this week will lead to a sequence of events culminating in the EU dictating the terms of any extension requested and the final humiliation of our country.”
The Camborne MP has, until now, been loyal to the government. Reflecting this, he appeared to attack those former Conservative members of the house who went against their pledges in the 2017 referendum to join the pro-European Union Independent Group and campaign for a second referendum to override the positive result of the first, and the European Union which he said has been deliberately difficult.
Eustice continued: “I appreciate that you have been terribly undermined by those in Parliament who refuse to respect the referendum result… I do not believe the [European Commission] has behaved honourable during these negotiations. They have deliberately made progress slow and difficult.”
The Daily Telegraph reports Eustice becomes the 12th minister to resign from the government over Brexit so far.
The resignation and remarks come the week Theresa May announced the new schedule of votes on Brexit due to take place in March which makes Britain not leaving on the legally mandated March 29th date all but certain.
While Theresa May has given the house a free vote on whether to leave the European Union with no deal, the constitution of Parliament with its clear majority of remain-supporting MPs means this option will be rejected out of hand. The vote will be followed the next day by another on whether Brexit should be delayed, a clear route to cancelling Brexit altogether and one, unsurprisingly, supported by the majority of the house.
These positions of Britain’s elected representatives stand at odds with electors, however. Breitbart London reported in January on a Sky Data Poll which found a no dela Brexit the most popular leave option among the voting public.
Oliver JJ Lane is the editor of Breitbart London — Follow him on Twitter and Facebook
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