Theresa May’s deal is ghastly but it’s the last chance to make Brexit REAL and the only way the UK will quit the EU
THE public are crying out for Brexit – finally – to be done and dusted.
Yet MPs keep arguing the toss over Parliamentary procedure, arcane amend-ments and non-binding votes.
A No Deal Brexit, allowing Britain to “just leave” the European Union, is by no means the economic disaster Remain scaremongers claim.
Talk of customs bottlenecks and planes not flying has been disproved as nonsense. Stop-gap agreements are in place.
But, and it’s a huge but, the harsh, unavoidable truth is that No Deal — while technically in Theresa May’s gift — is not available.
Our Remainer-stacked Parliament will use every trick in the book to block it.
That’s the practical political reality. Outrageous, but true.
Yes, admittedly, leaving with No Deal is for now the legal default. But anti-Brexit MPs have the numbers to wrest control of the Parliamentary agenda and pass primary legislation to prevent No Deal.
That is why all Honourable members who believe in democracy must hold their collective nose and back Mrs May’s Withdrawal Agreement — which, while deeply imperfect, at least gets Brexit over the line. And if that backing is conditional on May standing down, even better.
Britain needs a Prime Minister who sees Brexit not as a disaster to be managed, but a chance for national renewal.
MPS MUST NOT FALL INTO BRUSSELS' TRAP
Mrs May can still secure Brexit, and salvage some dignity, if her agreement gets through. But she must then make way for someone with genuine vision to negotiate our future EU relationship.
Her deal is, of course, ghastly. It leaves Britain without voice, vote or veto over EU law-making and subject to European Court of Justice jurisdiction.
We hand over £39billion we don’t technically owe.
This terrible outcome reflects her botched 2017 election and lack of negotiating nous.
Labour’s cynical ambivalence, with Jeremy Corbyn trying to wreck Brexit and spark a general election, hasn’t helped.
Big business has lobbied hard, with corporate vested interests determined to keep Britain in the EU’s protectionist customs union and smaller rivals ensnared in red tape.
And we have seen epic intransigence from Brussels to make Brexit as tough as possible in order to discourage others from leaving.
We can still leave, though, as long as pro-Brexit MPs don’t fall into Brussels’ trap.
BREXIT BELIEVERS CAN SHOW POLITICAL SAVVY
Last week’s EU summit granted Mrs May an “un-conditional” Article 50 extension from March 29 to April 12.
The EU’s aim was to encourage the European Research Group (ERG) of Tory Leavers to keep voting down Mrs May’s agreement, in the hope we would default to No Deal.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron is now calling on the EU to “just get rid of the UK”.
Anonymous eurocrats want to cut off “the gangrenous limb” that is Britain.
It is all just spin, designed to fool Brexiteers into rejecting Mrs May’s deal and giving Commons ultra-Remainers the chance, before April 12, to thwart No Deal, tipping the UK into a long Article 50 extension period in which Brexit can be entirely crushed.
Look at the damage the Remainer establishment has already done, consistently undermining Brexit since losing the June 2016 referendum. Think of the additional damage if the EU forces us into a much longer delay.
That is why the ERG must back the Withdrawal Agreement. Mrs May’s deal may stink but it gets us out of the EU’s legal structures once and for all.
Let’s take this opportunity to make Brexit irreversible, killing off the danger and further uncertainty of a deeply divisive second referendum — which would be disastrous not just for democracy, but also UK investment.
For once the Withdrawal Agreement has passed and we have left the EU, negotiations between London and Brussels will become more technocratic and much less heated.
The political temperature will drop, allowing us all to move on from this tortuous impasse.
Once Britain has left, we can then fight our way out of Mrs May’s terrible deal.
International law is, in large part, a matter of public opinion and power-broking.
The world will see, once the US and China are clamouring to do trade deals with Britain, that the EU is being entirely unreasonable trying to keep us locked in its insular customs union.
Post-Brexit, the Irish will also come on side, helping to solve “border issues” which were always entirely solvable.
MRS MAY'S DEAL MAY STINK
That is, once Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has saved face and “not backed down to the Brits” ahead of our withdrawal.
Why did “B******s-to-Brexit” John Bercow prevent MPs voting on Mrs May’s deal this month? Because he could see it was going to get through the Commons.
Leading ERG members were onside, and the DUP were very close, which would have unlocked the cascade of 30-odd Labour MPs from Leave constituencies who want Brexit — enough to get us legally and psychologically over the line.
MOST READ IN OPINION
Brexit “true believers” have a choice. They can “never surrender” and let Mrs May’s deal die. That would result in a long Article 50 delay, risking the entire Brexit project, which would be a democratic calamity.
Or they can show political savvy and bank this deal, making our EU withdrawal irreversible, before finishing the job of securing an advantageous future relationship under a new pro-Brexit Prime Minister.
The only way for the UK to return to moderate politics after our historic June 2016 referendum, is to leave the EU. The only way to ensure that, from where we are now, is to back Mrs May’s agreement.
- Liam Halligan is an economist, broadcaster and co-author of Clean Brexit.
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