Boris Johnson used a column in the Telegraph to attack Theresa May’s latest Brexit plan.
Johnson, who resigned as foreign secretary over the Chequers plan, wrote: “In adopting the Chequers proposals, we have gone into battle with the white flag fluttering over our leading tank.”
“If we continue on this basis we will throw away most of the advantages of Brexit. By agreeing to a “common rulebook” with the EU – over which we have no control – we are making it impossible for the UK to be more competitive, to innovate, to deviate, to initiate, and we are ruling out major free trade deals,” Johnson added.
“The reality is that in this negotiation the EU has so far taken every important trick. The UK has agreed to hand over £40 billion of taxpayers’ money for two-thirds of diddly squat.”
David Davis responded to Johnson whilst speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, David defended prime minister Theresa May and said it would not be easier if she stepped down.
“No, we don’t need any more turbulence right now. What matters in all of this is not the personality politics, it’s the outcome at the end.”
Damian Green, the prime minister’s former deputy, also defended May.
On Monday, Green told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “High-stakes rhetoric, use of words like ‘surrender’, and ‘white flag’ and ‘treachery’ and so on, that some newspapers have used, are absolutely what we don’t need in the current circumstance.”
“What’s interesting now is that the only plan on the table is the British government’s plan. [The EU’s chief negotiator] Michel Barnier hasn’t got a plan, those in my own party who object to Chequers don’t have a plan. So let’s hear what other people have.”
“But it is absolutely certain that there is no parliamentary majority in the House of Commons for a hard Brexit. So I’ll be interested to see what those who are saying, ‘Chequers isn’t good enough, we need a much harder Brexit’, what do they propose to get through the House of Commons?”