Andrea Leadsom today supported Michael Gove’s suggestion that if British voters do not like the EU deal they can change it.
The Tory Brexiteer said on Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘It is the case in a sovereign parliament that the voters can choose to take a country in a different direction.
She added: ‘It’s simply the case that in taking back control, in getting back our sovereign parliament, in leaving the EU, it will be for the voters to determine what future governments do. That’s a statement of the obvious.’
Andrea Leadsom today supported Michael Gove’s suggestion that if British voters do not like the EU deal they can change it
Gove had written in his Telegraph column: ‘The British people will be in control. If the British people dislike the agreement that we have negotiated with the EU, the agreement will allow a future government to diverge.’
Interviewer Nick Robinson pointed out that this would require a new Prime Minister as Theresa May is unlikely to ask voters to support her deal while offering them the chance to change it.
Leadsom’s interview infuriated Remains who called her performance ‘stumbling’ performance and claimed she said the words ‘let me be clear’ 27 times.
One wrote on Twitter: ‘Leadsom was so out of her depth I wanted to call the coastguard.’
Leadsom was followed on the show by a woman who collects otter poo to keep green spaces clean.
One Twitter user wrote: ‘The poo lady knew what she was talking about, while Leadsom didn’t have her s*** together at all.’
Leadsom’s comments came as it emerged the Cabinet is set to finally discuss what the UK’s post-Brexit ‘end state’ relationship with the EU should be at a meeting on December 19.
The gathering is expected to see prominent Leave campaigners such as Mr Gove and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson argue their Brexit version of withdrawal against the softer stance taken by Chancellor Philip Hammond and Home Secretary Amber Rudd.
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said this week’s events proved the EU wanted a free trade deal with the UK.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘The EU recognises that they really do need and want a free trade arrangement with the UK and they were prepared to do what was necessary to get it.’
Leadsom’s interview infuriated Remains who blasted her ‘stumbling’ performance in which she said the words ‘let me be clear’ 27 times
Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage predicted that Tory anger at Mrs May’s agreement with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker would emerge over the weekend.
He told the BBC: ‘I think that within the next 48 hours you will hear a lot more Conservative voices… saying, actually, they are not happy with what’s happened today.’
Proposals allowing the ECJ a role in overseeing EU citizens’ rights in Britain for eight years after Brexit have caused concern to some Tories, as well as a compromise on the Irish border issue which stated that if no trade deal is reached, the UK as a whole will maintain ‘full alignment’ with elements of the EU single market and customs union which support the economy of the island of Ireland and the Good Friday Agreement.
Gove had written in his Telegraph column: ‘The British people will be in control. If the British people dislike the agreement that we have negotiated with the EU, the agreement will allow a future government to diverge’
Tory former Brexit minister David Jones warned this could ‘severely handicap’ Britain’s ability to enter free trade agreements covering areas such as agriculture with countries outside the EU, such as the US.
But Justice Minister Dominic Raab said the details of how to deal with the issue of the Irish border had still to be worked out in full.
He told BBC 2’s Newsnight: ‘You can call it strategic ambiguity, you can call it constructive ambiguity… what I am admitting to you, very openly, and honestly, is that we have agreed principles, but that the details still need to be ironed out on this very bespoke set of issues around Northern Ireland which can’t be dealt with properly and responsibly outside of the context of the broader negotiation on customs and trade and all of those other things we have said all along.’
Labour’s shadow international trade secretary Barry Gardiner said the agreement on the Irish border issue was a ‘fudge’.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘Quite frankly, it is difficult to see that this is anything other than a fudge.’
Leadsom’s comments came as it emerged the Cabinet is set to finally discuss what the UK’s post-Brexit ‘end state’ relationship with the EU should be