Rupert Darwall

How Brexiteers can still save Brexit | 30 July 2018

Brexit hangs by a thread. The Chequers Plan has already failed. Public hostility and its one-sided nature mean that it cannot provide a durable basis for the UK’s future relationship with the EU. 

Only eighteen months ago, the Prime Minister was saying that Britain could not possibly stay in the EU Single Market. It would mean “not leaving the EU at all.” Yet this is precisely what the Chequers Plan does, with its acknowledgment that the Single Market is built on a balance of rights and obligations and its proposal for a new framework that “holds rights and obligations in a fair and different balance.” Fair and different is not Brexit.

The Prime Minister’s mishandling of the Brexit negotiations has led to a Withdrawal Agreement in which the UK promises to pay £39bn in return for an agreement to agree and the imposition of the Commission’s view on the Irish customs border issue.

Comments

Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months

Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.

Already a subscriber? Log in