Boris Johnson has warned that Britain could end up locked in orbit around the EU in his most critical comments to date of the Prime Minister’s handling of Brexit.
The Foreign Secretary told Tory donors that the UK could end up effectively in the customs union and to a large extent still in the single market unless the Government had the guts to pursue the right policies.
He even joked that if Donald Trump was in charge of Brexit actually you might get somewhere.
He said it was beyond belief that the Northern Ireland border issue had been allowed to dictate policy, describing it as allowing the tail to wag the dog.
He also described Philip Hammond’s Treasury as basically the heart of Remain.
Mr Johnson made the comments at a private dinner with Tory donors which were recorded by one of the attendees and leaked to the media Thursday night.
His direct criticism of Mrs May’s negotiating strategy is likely to lead to renewed speculation about his future as Foreign Secretary.
On what amounted to a chaotic day for the Government’s Brexit policy, Mrs May also made a series of concessions to Tory Remainers designed to head off a rebellion over the EU Withdrawal Bill next week.
The Government tabled five amendments to the Bill, one of which will allow court cases to be brought under European law for three years after the March 2019 exit date, rather than the current policy of three months.
Downing Street also conceded that Britain could end up paying more money to theEU after the end of transition in 2020 after Mrs May announced that her backstop plan to avoid a hard border in Northern Ireland would have an “expected” end date of December 2021.
Meanwhile, Sir Alan Duncan, Boris Johnson’s deputy at the Foreign Office, appeared to suggest that it was possible a referendum could be held on whether to accept the final Brexit deal agreed with the EU.
Mrs May left London on a flight to the G7 summit in Canada on Thursday afternoon believing she had headed off the latest crisis over Brexit, after David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, had threatened to resign.
Mr Davis had demanded that Mrs May’s fallback option for avoiding a hard border in Ireland should contain a specified cut-off date, and Mrs May managed to appease him by adding the date of December 2021 as the expected end date of the arrangement.
But while Mrs May was en route to Canada, a transcript of a recording of Mr Johnson’s explosive remarks appeared on the Buzzfeed website, having apparently been leaked by one of those present at a dinner for 20 donors on Wednesday night.
Mr Johnson spent an hour answering questions during the dinner at London’s Institute of Directors, which followed a wider meeting of the Conservative Way Forward policy group. Mr Johnson said that Brexit “will happen” but “the risk is that it will not be the one we want”.
He said there was a high chance of a Brexit that crossed the red lines of Brexiteers, keeping Britain locked in orbit around the EU, in the customs union and to a large extent still in the single market…so not really having full freedom on our trade policy, our tariff schedules, and not having freedom with our regulatory framework either.
He said Remainers in Government were too worried about the short-term disruption of Brexit to see the longer-term benefits, adding: “What they don’t want is friction at the borders. They don’t want any disruption of the economy. So they’re sacrificing all the medium and long-term gains out of fear of short-term disruption.
Do you see what I’m saying? The fear of short-term disruption has become so huge in people’s minds that they’ve turned into a quivering wreck.
They’re terrified of this nonsense. It’s mumbo jumbo.
He said the prophecies of doom” about customs problems were pure millennium bug stuff, and continued: The idea that we can’t track movement of goods, it’s just nonsense.
Unless you make the change, unless you have the guts to go for the independent policy, you’re never going to get the economic benefits of Brexit. You’ll never get the political benefits of Brexit.
Turning to President Trump, Mr Johnson said he was increasingly admiring of him, and appeared to suggest that he might make a better job of Brexit than Mrs May.
He said: Imagine Trump doing Brexit. He’d go in bloody hard… there’d be all sorts of breakdowns, all sorts of chaos. Everyone would think he’d gone mad. But actually you might get somewhere. It’s a very, very good thought.
However, he backed Mrs May to “go into a phase where we are much more combative with Brussels”.
He said: “You’ve got to face the fact there may now be a meltdown. OK? I don’t want anybody to panic during the meltdown. No panic. Pro bono publico, no bloody panic. It’s going to be all right in the end.”
A friend of Mr Johnson said last night: “This was a private dinner under Chatham House rules so it is sad and very disappointing that it has been covertly recorded and distributed to the media.”
Next week Mrs May will try to avoid defeat over 15 amendments to the EU Withdrawal Bill tabled by the House of Lords, which include attempts to keep Britain in the European Economic Area and the customs union.
On Thursday the Government tabled five amendments of its own in the hope of persuading around 15 Tory rebels not to vote with Labour. They included an extension of the right to bring court cases under European law from three months after exit day to three years after exit day, provided the law suits have arisen before Brexit day in March 2019.
In a speech which was cleared with Downing Street Sir Alan Duncan said there would be no second EU referendum but added: “It would, I suppose be possible to ask the people in a referendum if they liked the exit deal or not, but that would mean the choice would be between the exit deal on offer or no deal at all.”
Mrs May yesterday sent Brussels a statement of her “backstop” policy on customs arrangements which specified that if no customs deal had been agreed by the end of the transition period, the UK would remain aligned with the customs union to prevent a hard border with Northern Ireland.
Such an arrangement was “expected” to end before 2022. Downing Street said it was a matter for negotiation whether Britain paid any more money to the EU as a result of extending any current agreements.
Downing Street declined to comment on Mr Johnson’s remarks.