The most telling moment in Sophy Ridge’s interview with the Prime Minister on Sky was when she asked: “Why should anyone trust anything you say?”
Boris Johnson has a habit of telling untruths and making promises he doesn’t keep – such as that he would take the UK out of the EU by October 31 “do or die”. Here’s the latest crop from today’s interview.
Terrible divorce deal
Johnson said he’d done a “great new deal” with the EU. No he hasn’t. His divorce deal turns Northern Ireland into an EU colony and makes Great Britain poorer and less powerful than it would otherwise be. This is a rotten deal the country will regret for decades.
It won’t get Brexit done
The Prime Minister said his deal would “get Brexit done” and end the uncertainty that stops businesses and families planning. Untrue again. All he has done is the divorce deal with the EU. He hasn’t even started talking about a trade agreement with the bloc. The EU took six years to complete its trade agreement with Canada and seven to finalise its deal with Japan.
If the Tories win the election, the uncertainty will go on and on. The best way to stop that is to stop them getting a majority, hold a referendum and stop Brexit.
Trade agreement not easy-peasy
Johnson said the “negotiations should in principle be extremely simple” because we start in a “state of perfect alignment. We already have zero tariffs and zero quotas.” Wrong again. This will be one of the hardest trade deals in history.
The problem is that the Prime Minister wants to wriggle out of the “level playing field” provisions which guarantee workers’ rights and environmental standards. The EU worries that our producers would then gain an unfair advantage – and so may not be willing to keep zero tariffs and quotas.
Johnson is being dishonest to suggest that we can have free trade without regulatory alignment. It’s another version of his “cake-and-eat-it”.
To extend or not to extend?
Under the Prime Minister’s deal, we keep full access to the EU’s market until the end of next year. Since a trade agreement is most unlikely to be nailed down by then, we are facing another “no deal” cliff edge when this “transition period” ends.
We could avoid economic chaos then by extending the transition. But to do that we need to agree terms with the EU by July 1 – including a membership fee that is expected to be £12bn-15bn a year.
So would Johnson ask the EU for extra time? His answer was: “I see no reason whatever why we should extend the transition.” That’s supposed to sound like “no”. But you can easily see how he would wriggle out of it – just as he broke his “do or die” promise.
Dynamic economy? Johnson’s joking.
The Prime Minister wants to invest in the NHS, schools and the police. Don’t we all? But where’s the cash going to come from?
He says he’ll create a dynamic market economy. But pulling out of the EU, which accounts for half our trade, will knock the economy – not boost it. The damage will be £70 billion a year in the medium term, according to an analysis by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research.
The only way to fund lavish spending promises – apart from going deeper and deeper into debt – is to cancel Brexit. £70 billion a year could pay for a better NHS, smaller class sizes, more bobbies on the beat and better public transport – while also leaving an extra £500 a year for every adult and child in the country, according to an InFacts analysis.
United Kingdom? Another bad joke
Johnson says we will leave the EU as one “united” kingdom. False again. He is behaving like a pyromaniac with our country. It’s not just that Northern Ireland is being cut off with customs controls in the Irish Sea. The SNP is demanding a new independence referendum in Scotland.
So would the Prime Minister agree to Nicola Sturgeon’s request? He gave another shifty response: “I don’t see any reason to”.
Why, indeed, would anybody trust anything he says?
