Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has said that Prime Minister Boris Johnson has made the “right decision” in telling the UK to prepare for no deal.
After the EU continued to push for the UK to surrender on fishing, Prime Minister Johnson told the country in a televised announcement that “given they [the EU] have refused to negotiate seriously for much of the last few months, and given this summit appears to explicitly rule-out a Canada style deal, I have concluded we should get ready for January 1st with arrangements which are more like Australia’s, based on simply principals of global free trade”.
In reaction, Mr Farage said: “A Canada-style deal was always impossible given the withdrawal agreement. Boris now reaching the right solution.”
Other messages of support for the prime minister from Berxiteers poured in, including from veteran eurosceptic and Conservative MP John Redwood who said: “Well said Prime Minister. We should now leave without giving away our laws and our fish. He is right the EU has not negotiated seriously, so it is best to leave and trade under World trade rules.”
“The UK will prosper more with no deal than with a bad deal,” Mr Redwood added.
While Brexiteer Tory MP Andrea Jenkins tweeted: “#LetsGoWTO! The EU has abandoned the idea of negotiating in good faith, well done to our Prime Minister for standing strong against the inflexible EU!”
However, former Brexit Party MEP and businessman Richard Tice said that Prime Minister Johnson should have gone further in his remarks and declared that talks are over, and “we are full-on No Deal”.
“The EU have negotiated in bad faith. Close file, move on with confidence. No deal is always better than a bad deal,” Mr Tice said.
Fellow former Brexit Party MEP Ben Habib also agreed that Mr Johnson should have announced the closure of talks, saying: “Now he needs the courage to rip up the WA [withdrawal agreement] and cease negotiations with the EU. Only then can we be free of them.”
The EU’s Brexit negotiator was scheduled to travel to London on Monday for further talks; however, Number 10 reportedly said that talks are “over” and there is “no point” to Mr Barnier making the journey unless the EU is prepared to change its negotiating position.
Speaking to Breitbart London, Ben Harris-Quinney, the chairman of the UK’s oldest conservative think tank The Bow Group, said: “We shouldn’t forget that Boris’s deal isn’t much different to May’s. I’m often critical of Boris, and certainly the Conservative Party’s handling of Brexit, but credit has to be given that he seems to have at least learned the lesson that May didn’t. Brexiteers expect a full Brexit, not a halfway house, and if that isn’t on the table for a deal, then no deal is the ONLY option.”
“I’m very glad that Boris has shown far greater metal than his predecessors to stick to his guns, he must not budge an inch, and on this point, all conservatives should support him,” the Bow Group chairman added.
Negotiations appeared to have stalled broadly over the issue of continued fishing rights in British waters, with France’s Emmanuel Macron saying on Thursday that unless the UK conceded on fishing, it should prepare for no deal.
Mr Harris-Quinney remarked on the importance of the fishing industry, telling this publication: “Whilst fisheries are now a relatively small part of our economy, that is because of the decimating effect the EU has had on them over many decades.
“Even if the difference between the two sides comes down to the insistence of the EU to continue to fish in British territory, then our response must be the same as it would be to any other nation expecting to plunder our resources: bugger off.”
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