Dubai – Masaader News
Boris Johnson, the former mayor of London and prominent Brexiteer, is set to become the UK’s next prime minister after winning the contest to lead the Conservative Party, garnering 66% of the roughly 139,000 votes cast by party members, according to Reuters.
Johnson campaigned on the promise that Britain will leave the European Union by Oct. 31 – “do or die”. The least disruptive way to achieve that would be to succeed where May failed: by securing a Brexit deal with the EU that is approved by parliament.
The former foreign secretary has dismissed the idea of making a few cosmetic tweaks to the agreement May negotiated last November. Instead, he insists on ditching the Northern Ireland “backstop”. This requires Britain to stay in a customs union with the EU until it agrees on a trade deal that ensures there will be no border controls between the province and the Republic of Ireland. Johnson’s difficulty with this course is that European leaders have repeatedly ruled out reopening the agreement.
One option would be to keep Britain even more closely aligned to the EU after the official separation while the two sides negotiate their future relationship. For example, Britain and the EU could agree to keep extending the post-Brexit implementation period until a trade deal is signed. The backstop would no longer be needed. In the meantime, however, Britain would remain an EU member in all but name.
That idea would horrify the eurosceptics who are among Johnson’s most enthusiastic supporters. And he needs their help to secure the 320 votes required to get any revised deal through parliament. The government’s slender majority depends on the support of 10 representatives of the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party. In March, those members, as well as 34 Conservatives, voted against May’s agreement. Neither group is showing any sign of softening their stance. The Conservative leadership contest has hardened attitudes in the party against any deal.