A minister was brutally slapped down today after they risked shattering the government’s tough stance on Brexit by warning that No Deal would be an ‘absolute disaster’.
Transport minister George Freeman hit out at calls from ‘hardliners’ for the UK to stay on World Trade Organisation terms with the bloc.
He stressed that while No Deal was a ‘legitimate threat’ for negotiations, failure to reach an agreement in the long term would be so chaotic it could keep the Tories out of power for decades.
The incendiary comments, in a HuffPost podcast, contrast with Boris Johnson‘s position that the effects of crashing out of the EU have been overblown and can be managed.
Mr Freeman also suggested dissolving Parliament for an election over the Brexit date – something Mr Johnson has repeatedly refused to rule out – would be a ‘huge mistake’.
And he risked contradicting Mr Johnson’s demand for the Withdrawal Agreement thrashed out by Theresa May to be scrapped.
Downing Street was furious about the intervention amid a massive effort to present a united front against Brussels. All ministers had been told they must commit to No Deal at Halloween in order to get jobs.
Chancellor Sajid Javid also rebuked Mr Freeman, insisting he was not ‘frightened’ of leaving without a deal and the UK could end up ‘stronger and more resilient’.
A chastened Mr Freeman fell back in line this afternoon. ‘The PM has repeatedly set out his desire for a deal and our willingness to negotiate with all energy, but if the Commission is unwilling to negotiate, then we will still leave on October 31,’ he said in a statement. ‘I firmly support the Prime Minister and his approach.’
Transport minister George Freeman (pictured at Westminster last month) dismissed calls from ‘hardliners’ for the UK to stay on World Trade Organisation terms with the bloc
He said the package would have been signed off by the Commons with a ‘tweak’ to the Irish border backstop.
In comments that will infuriate government strategists, Mr Freeman said: ‘Being able to use the legitimate threat of no deal to get a good deal is a perfectly acceptable strategy.
Countdown to Brexit
Here are some key dates in the countdown to Brexit:
September 3: Parliament returns from its summer recess
Early September: Labour is expected to trigger a vote of no confidence in Boris Johnson’s Government
Early/Mid-September: If Boris Johnson loses the confidence vote, Remainers could try to install a cross-party administration to delay Brexit past October 31
Early/Mid September: Alternatively if Mr Johnson loses a general election is triggered if no one can form an administration within 14 days. But there are few rules on when he has to hold it
Early/Mid September: Or the Queen could step in and demand Mr Johnson resign, should he try to remain in No 10, sparking a potential constitutional crisis
October 31: Brexit day, when the UK is currently due to leave the EU
Early November? A possible post-Brexit General Election
‘I do not agree with those very few hardliners who think that WTO long-term would be satisfactory.
‘I don’t at all, I think it would be an absolute disaster and politically for my party would see us out of office for two decades I think.
‘More importantly, I think it would be very damaging to the stability of this country.
‘For me, what the prime minister has said he wants to do is get a sensible deal.
‘Bear in mind we were very close to getting this deal through, a tweak to the backstop would do it.’
Mr Freeman said he did not believed the PM’s ‘instincts’ were to prorogue – suspend – Parliament to stop it blocking No Deal at the end of October.
‘The idea of proroguing parliament, blocking parliament, would be a huge mistake,’ he said.
‘And I don’t think it’s the prime minister’s instincts, he’s a parliamentarian, he’s a Churchillian, he is a real democrat and I cannot for a moment think that’s what he’d want to do.
‘I do think if he can’t get a negotiated improvement and if parliament signals it is going to block No Deal, which he needs to be able to have as a sanction in order to get a deal, then it is quite likely we will end up by hook or by crook, one way or another, with an election.’
The intervention came as Mr Johnson looks to be gearing up for a November election today after ordering a fast-track spending review to fulfil his multi-billion pledges on police, the NHS and schools.
Speculation over an early snap poll has reached fever pitch after Whitehall was told budgets for the next year are being rushed through – in an apparent bid to show the PM is making good on his promise to end austerity.
Boris Johnson (pictured left on a visit near Oxford yesterday) has said some of the warnings about No Deal are overblown and can be managed. The PM’s adviser Dominic Cummings (pictured right leaving his London home today) has been masterminding his Brexit strategy
Mr Johnson repeatedly refused to rule out triggering an election for early November yesterday, amid Remainer fears that he will use the tactic to stop them blocking No Deal.
Who is transport minister George Freeman?
George Freeman was in the bio-medical business and a lobbyist for the National Farmers’ Union before becoming Mid Norfolk MP in 2010.
Seen as on the moderate wing of the party, he was a science minister under David Cameron, and backed Remain in the referendum.
He chaired Theresa May’s policy board until November 2017, when he quit warning that the party was being defined by ‘hard Brexit’.
He is also known for having staged a Tory ‘ideas’ festival that was mockingly compared to Glastonbury.
Some at Westminster were surprised when Mr Freeman was made transport minister by Boris Johnson.
Asked about Mr Freeman’s comments in a round of interviews today, Mr Javid said the government was ‘doing everything we can to prepare for a No Deal exit’.
‘If it comes to no-deal, it is not anything I am frightened of,’ he told Sky News.
‘I am confident that if that is what it comes to, we will not just get through it, the UK will end up stronger and more resilient. It is something that we can deal with.’
Mr Javid acknowledged some sectors, such as the food and automotive industries, would be affected but said there was still time to put in place plans to protect them.
‘There is a lot of work that we can do in the time that we have got to make sure that we are better prepared and cushion them from potentially any temporary impact that it might have.’
Tory MP Marcus Fysh told MailOnline that Mr Freeman was wrong.
‘The reality is that the government is going to make the right preparations so that it is not a disaster,’ he said.
‘Any concept that it is going to be a disaster has to assume that doesn’t happen/
‘If he thinks that I am afraid he is just incorrect.’
Chancellor Sajid Javid (pictured on a visit to the National Grid site near Newark today) insisted he was not ‘frightened’ of leaving without a deal and the UK could end up ‘stronger and more resilient’
Meanwhile, Jeremy Corbyn has demanded the head of the civil service, Sir Mark Sedwill, stops Mr Johnson if he tries to dissolve Parliament until after the October 31 Brexit deadline. Pro-EU MPs have also urged the Queen to sack the PM if he attempts to cling on after losing a confidence vote.
The attraction of a snap election was underlined yesterday with a YouGov poll suggesting Mr Johnson’s tough stance on Brexit and pledges to boost public service were winning over voters.
UK economy goes into the red for the first time since 2012
The British economy went into the red for first time since 2012 in the last quarter, official figures showed today.
UK plc shrank by 0.2 per cent over the three months, confounding economists who had expected it to flatline.
The worse-than-anticipated figures will fuel fears of a full-blown recession – which technically means two consecutive quarters of contraction – and heap pressure on Boris Johnson over Brexit.
Businesses have been blaming uncertainty over the UK’s future ties to the EU for a slowdown in growth.
It comes after growth accelerated to 0.5 per cent in the first quarter, driven by the highest quarterly pick-up in manufacturing since the 1980s as the original Brexit deadline loomed.
With the UK’s departure from the bloc now rescheduled for October, companies which spent the first three months of the year stockpiling are thought to have been using up their stores.
Manufacturing and construction activity also reduced to cause the drop.
The Tories were nine points ahead of Labour on 31 per cent, and Mr Johnson was nearly twice as popular as Jeremy Corbyn, with 39 per cent saying he made a good PM.
However, there are warning signs for the premier, as the unashamedly pro-Remain Lib Dems were on 21 per cent and the Brexit Party was on 14 per cent.
Mr Johnson has so far resisted pressure to consider an electoral pact with Nigel Farage’s insurgent party, but many Tories believe he will need to do a deal to avoid Eurosceptic support being split.
There was also some bad news on the economy today, with new figures showing UK plc shrinking in the second quarter for the first time since 2012.
Labour has threatened to stage a confidence vote when the Commons returns from recess next month, with the result on a knife edge.
If such a vote is lost, there is a 14-day period for a government to win a new confidence vote before an election is sparked. But as the outgoing PM, Mr Johnson would have control over the date of that election.
Mr Corbyn has told Cabinet Secretary Sir Mark Sedwill he cannot allow Mr Johnson to trigger a campaign over the October 31 deadline for leaving the EU.
The Opposition says Sir Mark must be a ‘voice of sanity’ after Mr Johnson’s allies confirmed that if he loses a confidence vote he will simply set the polling date for early November – dissolving Parliament and leaving MPs powerless to prevent the process.
But Tories hit back that Mr Corbyn was playing politics and betraying his previous promise to honour the result of the 2016 referendum.
The stark threat from No10 has thrown Remainers into chaos as they scramble to find a way to prevent the premier keeping his ‘do or die’ vow to take the UK out of the bloc by Halloween.
The row has stretched the UK constitution to breaking point, with calls for the Queen to sack Mr Johnson to avert No Deal.
The usual principle is that government maintains the ‘status quo’ during an election period, rather than making any radical decisions.
However, while pro-EU MPs argue No Deal would be a major shift, leaving on October 31 is the legal default since Parliament voted to invoke Article 50 more than two years ago.
In a wide-ranging BBC interview last night, Mr Johnson refused to answer repeated questions about whether he would ignore a no confidence vote if he lost it in September and simply ‘dig in’ at No 10.
He said he still believed it was possible to find an agreement which would allow Britain to leave with a deal at the end of October.
The two options being pursued by Remainers as they battle to block No Deal Brexit
Westminster is braced for an explosive couple of months as the October 31 Brexit deadline looms.
Boris Johnson has made a ‘do or die’ vow to get the UK out of the bloc by the crucial date, with or without a deal.
But Remainer MPs have been mobilising as they seek ways of blocking the country from crashing out.
There does appear to be a majority in the Commons against No Deal – but MPs are badly split over how they should go about binding the hands of the government.
Boris Johnson (pictured in Downing Street this week) has solemnly vowed to complete Brexit by October 31 ‘come what may’, but the EU is refusing to give way on his key demand that the hated Irish border be dropped
Remainers admit they are now at a ‘fork in the road’, with opinion divided between two potential options for averting No Deal.
Some, such as Tory former Cabinet minister Dominic Grieve, have been focusing on whether a no-confidence motion could be passed to evict Mr Johnson from power if he is about to push through Brexit without an agreement.
Mr Grieve has suggested putting a ‘unity’ premier into No10, perhaps Labour veteran Margaret Beckett, who could ask for an extension to the Article 50 process.
However, Mr Johnson’s hard-line Brexit adviser Dominic Cummings has made it known that he would simply refuse to quit even if he loses a confidence vote, and try to call an election for after the deadline.
The other avenue being pursued by Remainers is to pass a law that would oblige the PM to seek and accept an extension to Article 50 from the EU.
Unlike the confidence vote, that would not risk Parliament being dissolved for an election – which could leave MPs powerless to stop No Deal.
But there are concerns that Mr Johnson might either ignore the law or refuse to accept any conditions Brussels puts on an extension.
Option 1: A vote of no confidence in the Government
If the stand-off has not been broken by September, Labour is expected to team up with Tory rebels to stage an early confidence vote to stave off the threat of crashing out.
It is a drastic option that would end the careers of any Conservative MPs who join, but only a PM can request an extension to the Article 50 process, and the legal default currently is that the UK leaves at Halloween with or without an agreement.
As the government’s working majority is just one and with strong cross-party opposition to No Deal, there is a serious prospect that Mr Johnson will lose.
But Mr Cummings reportedly ‘laughed’ at a meeting recently when it was put to him that Mr Johnson would have to quit if he lost such a vote.
Instead, he could try to wait for an election to be triggered and fight it on a ‘people vs politicians’ ticket, complaining that his opponents are trying to block Brext.
He could also try to fix an election date that was after the Brexit date – robbing the Commons of its ability to control the process and achieving a No Deal Brexit by default.
Remainers believe if the premier refused to go quietly the Queen would be forced to sack him and a unity Government could be installed, with Margaret Beckett a rumoured interim leader
Under the Fixed Term Parliaments Act (FTPA), losing a confidence motion triggers a 14 day countdown to an election being called.
During that period it is possible for a Prime Minister to win a confidence vote and prevent the country going to the polls.
However, the legislation is silent on whether the same premier can return to try again.
Remainer MPs say the Queen would have to sack Mr Johnson if he refused to resign after losing a confidence vote.
But the monarch has always been extremely wary of wading into politics, and it is far from clear that there will be another politician with more chance of commanding a majority in the Commons. Labour has already ruled out the Remainers’ favoured option of a national unity government, and Mr Corbyn can barely rely on the support of his own MPs – let along Tories.
Option 2: Passing a law to delay Brexit
Pro-EU MPs have already deployed the tactic of seizing control of Commons business to pass a law insisting on a Brexit delay.
In April a Bill sponsored by Labour’s Yvette Cooper and Tory Oliver Letwin made it through Parliament, which paved the way for the Article 50 extension to October 31.
There are moves afoot to cancel the schedule recess next month, which would give more time.
It would require the assistance of Speaker John Bercow, but he has shown himself will to stretch procedural rules to breaking point in order to facilitate MPs getting involved in the Brexit process.
Potentially this approach would involve an emergency debate – known as a Section 24 debate – being tabled and accepted by the Speaker.
He would then allow the MPs to put down a business motion in the slot the next day, setting out the steps for a law to be passed.
That legislation is likely to be very short, simply instructing the PM to seek and accept an extension from the EU.
Remainers are divided over whether the Bill should point the way to a resolution to the Brexit crisis, such as a referendum.
However, if passed by the Commons and the Lords, Mr Johnson would be breaking the law if he refused to ask for an extension.
Refusing to comply would spark legal action, and cause a constitutional crisis.
