London: Britain’s former premier Boris Johnson on Thursday criticised Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s new Brexit deal with the European Union, saying he will find it “very difficult” to vote for it in Parliament.
Sunak has been riding high on a largely positive wave since the British Prime Minister declared a “decisive breakthrough” with the EU in the form of a Windsor Framework, which replaces his former boss’ controversial Northern Ireland Protocol.
The British Indian leader told the House of Commons that the new pact puts “beyond all doubt that we have now taken back control”. However, Johnson – now a disgruntled backbench Conservative Party MP – informed a Global Soft Power Summit in London on Thursday that he would discover it “very difficult” to vote for the brand new deal in Parliament. “I’m conscious I’m not going to be thanked for saying this, but I think it is my job to do so: we must be clear about what is really going on here,” stated Johnson.
“This is not about the UK taking back control, and although there are easements this is really a version of the solution that was being offered last year to (former British prime minister) Liz Truss when she was foreign secretary. This is the EU graciously unbending to allow us to do what we want to do in our own country, not by our laws but by theirs,” he stated.
“I’m going to find it very difficult to vote for something like this myself because I believe that we should have done something different. No matter how much plaster came off the ceiling in Brussels,” he added. Johnson stated he hopes the brand new deal works but when it does not, the federal government ought to have “the guts” to re-table the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill he had drafted – which might permit the UK to unilaterally change components of the earlier Brexit protocol with out the EU’s permission. While the EU claims such a transfer breaches worldwide regulation, Johnson believes it’s the Bill that finally “brought the EU to negotiate seriously”.
Sunak had pulled the Bill from Parliament after he agreed a brand new cope with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Windsor on Monday, following months of intensive talks. It is hoped the Windsor Framework would break the impasse over the contentious and unworkable Northern Ireland Protocol, which was designed to stop a post-Brexit arduous border on the island of Ireland – between UK territory Northern Ireland and EU member-state Ireland – however which successfully created a commerce divide.
Now, Sunak is ready for the response of the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the clear backing of arduous Brexiteers inside his personal Tory celebration for the brand new framework. Johnson’s intervention is anticipated to affect the latter to some extent however there’s a basic consensus that Sunak is unlikely to face any main insurrection within the ranks over the difficulty. After what has been broadly seen as a win for his management talents, the Prime Minister has determined to deal with his celebration colleagues to an “away day” in Windsor – the location of the brand new Brexit framework. According to ‘The Times’ newspaper, Conservative Party MPs have been bussed from London to Windsor on Thursday morning for twenty-four hours of bonding, teambuilding and strategising.
