It looks as if the Conservative party is already at war. Fifty or so Brexiteer Tory MPs openly meet to discuss deposing the Prime Minister — yet they have no strategy and (at present) no chance of defeating her in a confidence vote. On Twitter, Tory backbenchers and even ministers can be found threatening to destroy each other. This isn’t just about personality. In the last few months, the question of what Britain’s relationship with the EU should be and who should be Prime Minister have fused together — so the most divisive issue in British post-war politics has been combined with a drawn-out leader-ship contest.
The Prime Minister has produced a plan: the Chequers proposal. It is hard to name its ardent supporters but easy enough to identify its most prominent critic: Boris Johnson. Since resigning from the cabinet, he has kept up a regular verbal barrage against it — a campaign that has had some success. Polls show that most Tory members and voters don’t like it. Meanwhile, the former foreign secretary is once again the grassroots’ favourite to be the next Tory leader. Those close to Boris Johnson publicly maintain that he wishes to change the policy, not the Prime Minister. That is rot.
Most Tory opponents of Chequers believe that Mrs May’s plan is doomed on the grounds that the EU will not be prepared to accept her cherry-picking, seeking free movement of goods without the free movement of people. As one Tory who was vital to the referendum victory likes to say, ‘In Barnier we trust.’
Boris Johnson does not agree. He argues that the EU know a cave-in when it sees one and will bite on Chequers. Britain would be bound to accept its regulations on goods, while having no say over them. Boris believes that Barnier will squeeze a couple more concessions, then ask her to sign.
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