‘Worst of all worlds’ - Lord Frost blasts Theresa May’s Brexit talks legacy
LORD Frost has blasted Theresa May's Government for leaving Boris Johnson with the "worst of all worlds" because of her government's inept ability to negotiate.
Brexit: Frost says PM’s government left with ‘worst of all worlds’
The former Brexit minister who eventually agreed Britain’s departure from the EU admitted that he and Mr Johnson were forced to accept “an imperfect deal” because of the mistakes made by the May government. Speaking to Policy Exchange he blasted her for making “too many early concessions”. And he said that the Northern Ireland protocol was the only option available to get the UK out of the EU’s Single Market and Customs Union.
In his most frank admission yet over the situation faced by Mr Johnson’s government in 2019, Lord Frost said: “Few British governments entering into office had faced quite such a daunting prospect.”
He told an audience, including former Northern Ireland DUP First Minister Arlene Foster, that the hated Protocol was the only option.
“Step back to the moment the Boris Johnson government entered office in July 2019,” said Lord Frost detailing Theresa May’s disastrous agreements with Brussels.
“We were faced with a Withdrawal Agreement that had been agreed but could not get through Parliament.
“There was lots wrong with it, notably the continued role for the EU's Court of Justice, but the worst aspect was that first version of the Northern Ireland Protocol. Via the so-called "backstop", its effect was to keep all of the UK in the EU's customs union until a different way of managing the Northern Ireland border had been found - even though the EU had said there was no other way.
“There would be alignment of the whole of the UK to the single market for goods and much else besides.
“And yet, despite all this, the concept of an Irish Sea border remained in the Agreement: Northern Ireland was removed from the UK customs territory for WTO purposes, and Great Britain and the EU plus Northern Ireland were then put back together into a customs union. It was the worst of all worlds.”
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But he said there was much more bad about the deals which Mrs May’s chief negotiator Olly Robbins had tried to get tied up.
He said: “Beyond that, we faced an agreed Political Declaration which committed the country to a high-alignment soft Brexit in the future relationship negotiations that would follow.
“In considering how to proceed we faced serious dilemmas and many factors that needed to be balanced. They explain why the final deal was imperfect.”
He also took a swipe at Remainers including former Speaker John Bercow who tried to tear up British constitutional norms to overturn the Brexit referendum result.
“First, we had to deal with the growing belief among the political class and the public that the referendum result simply couldn't be delivered.
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“Second, we faced the shredding of our constitutional norms, with Parliament effectively taking on the role of the executive for Brexit purposes, and hamstringing the government's ability to negotiate.
“Third, it was clear that a substantial proportion of the political class, in all parties, wanted to find a way of reversing the referendum result - which would have had, in our view, a devastating impact on faith in democracy itself.”