The Brexit Secretary, Steve Barclay, has warned that the UK risks 'sleepwalking' into staying in the European Union.
PLEASE WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW:
The Brexit Secretary has warned that the EU may not grant the UK a further Article 50 extension as we approach the current October the 31st deadline.
This could, he says, set up a showdown in the Commons resulting in MPs voting to reverse Brexit altogether rather than face a no deal Brexit.
But in reality his words are aimed at those Brexiteers on his own benches who view Theresa May's Withdrawal Agreement as a UK damaging surrender treaty and therefore keep voting it down.
Barclay wants them to swing behind the PM to get her deal across the line and is using the threat of no Brexit to try and get them onboard.
"Every MP is now faced with a tough choice," he said, "Vote for a deal or head towards a showdown in October where we may lose Brexit together. The EU will decide for us. If we don’t roll up our shirt sleeves and pass the deal, we risk them losing patience and refusing any more time."
The last thing this country needs is either to Remain in the EU or to accept the unadulterated poison that is Theresa May's Withdrawal Agreement.
The only correct thing that Steve Barclay said was:
"That is why I believe it would be inexcusable for the Government to not use the coming months to continue to prepare for No Deal."
But he wants to use no deal planning purely as a bargaining chip, while getting May's treaty through. But leaving the EU without a deal on WTO terms is now the only route that a self respecting, independent nation like the UK should take. Anything else is surrendering with absolutely no reason to do so.
Just like all the other remaining members of May's government, Barclay is a budding architect of UK vassalage to the EU.
Now the former Defence Secretary, Gavin Williamson, who was sacked over his alleged leaking of the potential involvement of the Chinese tech giant Huawei in the building of the UK's new 5G comms network, has attacked the Prime Minister over her Brexit negotiations with the Labour Party.
Williamson says the talks process of forging a deal sounds 'so simple and so reasonable' but that it would end in failure, while members of her own party see it as colluding with the enemy.
And he said:
"Even if Labour do a deal, break bread with the prime minister and announce that both parties have reached an agreement, it can only ever end in tears. The Labour Party does not exist to help the Conservative Party. Jeremy Corbyn will do all he can to divide, disrupt and frustrate the Conservatives in the hope of bringing down the government. His goal, and he has made no secret of it, is to bring about a general election."
Downing Street said in reply that, although Williamson had not been involved in the negotiations, he had been "supportive of the process while he was in the cabinet".
And, while a former secretary of state is attacking the Tory Prime Minister, a former Labour Prime Minister is attacking the Labour Party would be Prime Minister, Jeremy Corbyn.
Tony Blair has again surfaced to poke his hooter into the Brexit debate by urging Labour Remain supporters to vote in the European elections for one of the unequivocally Remain parties like the Lib Dems, Change UK or the Green Party. Although he says in an Observer article that personally, he will be voting Labour in those MEP elections.
These days it is not clear whether that many people are actually listening to Mr Blair and, if they are, whether they are more likely to do the opposite of what he says.
But if people are listening and do vote in the way he asks, all it will do is redistribute the Remain vote away from Labour.
And with Labour, which was once neck and neck with the Brexit Party heading the polls with 28% apiece, now falling back into second place in the polls on 21% with The Brexit Party astonishingly well in the lead on 34%, Blair's call to vote elsewhere will not help Corbyn's cause.
In fact at the moment The Brexit Party headed up by Nigel Farage is polling higher than any two of the the Tories, Lib Dems and Labour combined!
Just to put the latest Opinium polling results for the Observer into context, from my calculations using the D'Hondt system that governs UK MEP seat allocation, if these results were replicated across the nation, in a six MEP region the Brexit Party would end up with three seats, Labour with one, the Lib Dems with one and the Tories with one seat.
In a ten seat region it would be: The Brexit Party with 4 seats, Labour 3 and the Lib Dems, Tories and Greens with one each.
Now, how on earth would these sorts of results lead to the UK 'sleepwalking' into remaining in the EU as Steve Barclay suggests.
No, it would not be sleepwalking, it would be a massive calculated act of anti-democratic treason by our politicians to go against the people and keep us in the EU against our will.
Sources:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48241606
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/brexit/9054368/britain-sleepwalking-staying-eu-brexit-secretary/
