Boris Johnson has labelled Theresa May’s Brexit deal an ‘appalling sell-out’ saying it would leave Britain facing ‘colonial rule by foreign powers and courts’.
The former Foreign Secretary ramped up the pressure on the PM after a chaotic week at Westminster by saying the deal was ‘betraying Leavers and Remainers alike.’
Unveiling a ‘six-point plan’ to ‘get us out of this hole’ Mr Johnson called for scrapping the Irish backstop, refusing to pay some of the £39billion divorce bill and seeking a ‘SuperCanada’ trade deal with Brussels.
However Mr Johnson, writing in his weekly column in the Telegraph, did not add his name to the list of MPs demanding a confidence vote in Mrs May as party leader.
Boris Johnson (pictured last week) has labelled Theresa May’s Brexit deal an ‘appalling sell-out’ saying it would leave Britain facing ‘colonial rule by foreign powers and courts’
The former Foreign Secretary said the agreement could not be improved in the next stage of talks with the EU but needed to be scrapped immediately.
He said: ‘We are preparing to take colonial rule by foreign powers and courts. We are handing over colossal sums of money for nothing.
‘We are giving up the hope of new free-trade deals. We are giving up the right to vary our laws.
‘We are betraying Leavers and Remainers alike: we are poised to abandon any UK influence in Brussels, yet we are signally failing to take back control.’
In his six-point plan he called for taking the better parts of the deal including the rights of citizens; scrapping the Irish backstop; and preparing to exit on WTO terms.
He also called for a declaration that the UK would seek a ‘SuperCanada’ deal with Brussels, demanded the withholding of at least half of the £39billion bill, and asked for the Government to ‘show some enthusiasm’ for Brexit.
Mr Johnson joined former Brexit Secretary David Davis in resigning from the Cabinet over Mrs May’s Brexit plans in July this year.
The PM has faced a week of intense pressure from Brexiteers since the publication of her 585-page withdrawal agreement with Brussels last Wednesday.
A stormy five-hour Cabinet meeting was followed by a series of resignations while Tory backbenchers launched the plot to oust her.
Mrs May has vowed to fight on and the rebels do not yet have the 48 letters required to force a confidence motion in the Conservative party.
Theresa May (pictured) has faced a week of intense pressure from Brexiteers since the publication of her 585-page withdrawal agreement with Brussels last Wednesday
However she faces a struggle to get her deal through the House of Commons, where her DUP allies are not certain to back her Government.
A defeat in Parliament, which is expected to vote next month, could lead to a no-deal exit or a new general election.
Meanwhile the so-called ‘Gang of Five’ Brexiteers in her Cabinet, including Michael Gove and Andrea Leadsom, are demanding changes to the deal.
She will go on the attack over her Brexit plan on Monday, using a speech to say that the withdrawal agreement has been ‘agreed in full’.
Her speech is due to address those – thought to include up to five serving ministers – who think changes can be made to her deal before a European Council sumit
She is expected to say that there is ‘an intense week of negotiations ahead of us’ before the November 25 summit.
The PM will say: ‘During that time I expect us to hammer out the full and final details of the framework that will underpin our future relationship and I am confident that we can strike a deal at the council that I can take back to the House of Commons.
‘The core elements of that deal are already in place. The Withdrawal Agreement has been agreed in full, subject of course to final agreement being reached on the future framework.’