If the EU doesn’t soften in negotiations Boris Johnson must lead Britain out on January 1, deal or no deal
HOPES of marking Brexit with a happy New Year trade deal were crushed last week when EU negotiator Michel Barnier flounced out early.
Downing Street warned neither Barnier nor German Chancellor Angela Merkel have softened their demands.
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Nor is Britain ready to make concessions.
So Boris Johnson will lead Britain out of the EU on January 1, deal or no deal.
Bullish Brexit minister Michael Gove insisted we will take back control of our borders “come what may” and unveiled plans for a £1billion splurge on customs posts and tax technology.
Home Secretary Priti Patel joined in, promising new powers to decide who comes to live and work in the UK.
Britain will not be “crashing out”.
In a post-Covid age, the whole world is embarking on a new and challenging trading era.
Prospects of a clean break were greeted by Brexiteers with a mixture of joy and suspicion.
READY TO LEAVE
“We are ready to leave without a deal,” said one senior Leaver.
“It gives us a chance to reset our economy and sweep away bureaucratic regulations.”
But rattled Tory MPs — including some who once hailed Boris as their Brexit hero — worry they are being set up for a fudge.
They fear the PM will leave them trapped in an eleventh-hour deal which ties UK hands on trade, competition and the deeply loathed European Court of Justice.
MPs are particularly agitated by a surprise delay until July next year on new customs procedures for hard-pressed exporters.
This inexcusable cock-up has infuriated Trade Secretary Liz Truss.
“Tax officials have had since the Referendum in 2016 to get their act together,” fumed one minister.
“What have they been doing with their time?”
CHINA AND COVID CONCERNS
Doubts over Government competence have been aggravated by wider concerns about Chinese technology giant Huawei and the catastrophic economic meltdown from Covid.
MPs are appalled by the devastation to our High Streets and schools and unwillingness of healthy grown-ups to go back to work.
It should worry Number Ten that long-standing foes and once-staunch allies are uniting in criticism of what they see as a Government shambles.
“Tory backbenchers are very restless,” says a usually firm supporter. “I have never known such an incompetent bunch — a Cabinet of lightweights.”
The National Security Council is expected tomorrow to step in and axe Chinese state-backed Huawei’s role in Britain’s sensitive 5G broadband network.
But the company looks likely to be given until 2025 to strip out potential spyware, taking its involvement beyond the next election and into a new government.
MPs are livid over the decision by civil servants to sign the Huawei contract in the first place — without even telling ministers and apparently against the advice of security services.
BLOCK HUAWEI
Former Australian PM Kevin Rudd says he scrapped talks with Huawei on his country’s own broadband network a decade ago amid warnings from British intelligence.
Fluent Mandarin-speaker Mr Rudd said: “We took the decision to block Huawei on advice from British and US authorities in terms of maintaining the integrity of our system.
“Would our Chinese friends tolerate a foreign national provider installing sensitive hardware or software into China’s network? The answer is No.”
China now hangs like a bad smell over the economic wreckage of the post-Covid world.
Boris started the year with an 80-seat majority, full employment and a huge lead in the polls.
Today Britain is struggling under a mountain of debt and facing a ten per cent slump in economic output, with millions ending up on the dole.
But so is the EU — along with a widening political gulf between member states and the risk of a currency crisis.
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Which is why, for all M. Barnier’s frothy impatience, those trade talks are not over yet.
The last thing Brussels wants is a newly independent offshore neighbour struggling to stay afloat and ready, if pushed, to deploy the weapon the EU fears most — as the buccaneering tax-slashing equivalent of Singapore-on-Sea.
Labour woes
LABOUR supporters celebrated new polls showing leader Keir Starmer cruising ahead of Boris Johnson on strength, competence, likeability and trust.
There’s only one problem.
Under his strong, competent and likeable leadership, Labour is deemed totally unsuitable to run the economy, even – or perhaps especially – as it goes pear-shaped.
Boris and Chancellor “Dishy Rishi” Sunak lead on this crunch issue by a massive 16 per cent.
And at a time when Labour should be soaring ahead as a rival for government, the Tories still lead by four per cent.
Boris will settle for that.
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