If Britain can’t get a good Brexit deal, we should tell Mr Barnier it’s no deal – and walk out
FOUR and a half years after the British people voted for Brexit, we are now within days – perhaps even hours – of knowing whether we leave with a trade deal.
It’s been 1,628 desperate days filled with mess and muddle as then-PM Theresa May’s hapless negotiators floundered.
Faith in British politics plummeted as they weakly accepted everything the EU demanded.
Outrageously, the Labour Party even told us we could not be trusted to make such a big decision and we would have to vote again.
People were angry – even many of those who voted to remain felt patronised by the great and good who dithered and didn’t deliver.
Then Boris said he would get Brexit done and romped home with a stonking 80-seat victory.
Once impregnable Labour red wall seats in the North and the Midlands turned blue as patriotic, hard-working people wanted their vote to be honoured.
And here we are, 25 days from deadline, edging closer to a trade deal.
The British people know that any deal simply won’t do.
As a recent Centre for Brexit Policy poll showed, voters in the once red wall seats are clear they want to take back control of our laws, money, fishing waters and become a proud sovereign country again.
They know they were promised as much.
But the EU is desperate to stop this. Like a bunch of dodgy car salesmen, they will go on offering little things that sound like compromises but aren’t.
I have great faith in our negotiating team. But knowing how much pressure there is for a deal, there’s a small risk they may wilt.
As they tire at the dead of night with the clock striking 4am, through blurry eyes they could mistake a last-minute compromise for a good deal.
At this point chief negotiator David Frost should pause, take this reminder of our manifesto out of his pocket and ask himself these questions:
- Will the UK exit as one United Kingdom, setting its own tariffs and trade deals?
- Have we broken free of the European Court and taken back control of our laws?
- Will we have cooperation but not political alignment with the EU?
- Is the UK out of the single market and customs union, able to take back control of our money, our trade and our fishing rights?
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If the answer to any of those questions is no, he should put down his pen, get up and say: “I’m sorry Monsieur Barnier, this isn’t good enough.”
After all, Boris Johnson has told us that he wants a deal that treats us as a sovereign country.
And if he can’t get a good deal, Lord Frost should tell Mr Barnier it’s no deal – and walk out.
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