Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Sam Gyimah’s resignation shows the limitations of Project Fear

Theresa May has sought to frame her deal as a battle between the forces of common sense and wreckers – either Brexiteers or Remainers. Sam Gyimah’s resignation complicates this narrative due to the type of politican he is. Not a firebreathing Eurosceptic allergic to the idea of compromise, not an Adonis-style hyperventilater who never recovered from losing the referendum. He’s a moderate, who tried his best to reconcile himself to Theresa May’s deal – and a young MP who, unlike her, will be around to deal with the consequences.

She had hoped that the longer people had to reflect on her deal, the more people would see her deal as a sensible middle way. Instead, MPs have come to see it as a trap that Britain will struggle to escape given that we will be in the EU system with no voice, no vote and having handed over the £39bn and regulatory control of Northern Ireland. As he said this morning, it’s not even a deal: the UK has presented a wish list that involves free trade and we hope the EU will behave honourably and in good faith. But it’s precisely the EU’s behaviour over the Galileo satellite project that made him resign: it kicked Britain out for no good reason at all, refusing to return any of cash we have sunk into it. A sign of what might be to come.

We never quite knew how the EU would behave once we agreed terms of exit. The Withdrawal Agreement, whereby we give the EU money up front before negotiating anything in return, relied on good faith. Sam Gimayh says the Galileo affair shows that it is naive to expect that good faith, dangerously so.

He also rejected as false her choice between her deal or no-deal chaos, and speaks for perhaps the majority in refusing to believe that there is not a better option.

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