BrexitWatch, July 14, Matthew Patten
REMAINERS WILL REJOICE to learn that a row has been rekindled among some Brexiteers. It flared up in the last 48 hours, but its roots lie in a split in the Brexit Party during the General Election Campaign.
The original argument was over the Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration which Boris Johnson had surprisingly renegotiated following a meeting with the Irish Taoiseach. Boris had promised the electorate he would “get Brexit done”, but didn’t want us to ‘crash out’ of the EU. There was no time to renegotiate Mrs May’s dreadful deal, but he had at least found an alternative to her toxic Northern Ireland backstop.
It led to a rift within the Brexit Party between those who thought that despite being an improvement it should be contested, since it would continue EU control over UK affairs after we had left – and others who felt that it would at least get us out of the EU, thereby changing the political paradigm, leaving improvements to be made after that. Ultimately, the dispute resulted in the painful departure of four MEPs from the Brexit Party.
Much has changed in the seven months since then and both sides of the Brexit barney are sort of right.
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