When Boris Johnson came out for Leave in March 2016, he hinted he was in favour of a double referendum. With the other leading Brexiter, Nigel Farage, saying he is warming to a new referendum, it is time the foreign secretary jumped on the bandwagon. All the more so, since he is having qualms about the whole Brexit business, according to The Sun.
The pro-Brexit tabloid writes today that Johnson has:
“confided with friends over his concerns that Theresa May will be worn down and eventually forced to accept a bad deal by mandarins and Remain-leaning Cabinet ministers during trade negotiations that start in March. Boris has told confidantes that still having to accept dictats from Brussels would leave the UK as ‘just another Norway’ … In that soft Brexit scenario, the mop-haired Tory boss has even claimed to pals: ‘I’d rather us stay in than leave like that’.”
Johnson is right to be worried that the negotiations will end in a bad deal. He’s also right that we may have to accept diktats from Brussels – although it’s wrong to imply this would be a continuation of the status quo. At the moment, we are one of the most influential countries in the EU. The risk is that we will move from being a rule-maker to become a rule-taker.
What’s more, Johnson would be wrong to think we might end up like Norway, which has full access to the EU’s vast single market. The risk is that we end up with the worst of both worlds: becoming what the foreign secretary has previously described as a “vassal state” without full access. But he is right on the big point: it is indeed better to stay as a proud nation leading the EU than leave with our tail between our legs.
So what is Johnson going to do about it? The smart answer is to pick up an idea he flirted with when he announced his conversion to Brexit in the Telegraph two years ago. He wrote: “There is only one way to get the change we need, and that is to vote to go, because all EU history shows that they only really listen to a population when it says No.” The idea was that after we’d voted to quit, the EU would offer us a better deal – and, after that, presumably, we could have another vote.
Time has moved on and the context isn’t quite the one Johnson envisaged. We are facing a bad deal to quit the EU rather than an enhanced deal to stay. All the more reason to follow Farage and offer to give the people the final say. That wouldn’t just be in the national interest. It would be the best way of avoiding the opprobrium of history for leading the British people on a merry dance to a destructive Brexit.
