May’s EU talks an ‘illusion’, says Boris Johnson

EU citizens will be stopped from jumping ‘the queue’ for jobs under Theresa May’s troubled Brexit deal, she has pledged.

British Conservative Party politician Boris Johnson. Picture: AFP

Prime Minister Theresa May’s suggestion that concerns with Britain’s Brexit deal could be remedied in talks with EU leaders this week are “a tragic illusion” or “an attempt at deception”, former foreign secretary Boris Johnson says.

As the number of “no-­confidence” letters from Tory MPs continued to rise, Mrs May dug in yesterday in her attempt to sell her EU divorce deal.

Brexiteers claimed they were on target to reach more than 50 no-confidence letters within the next two days.

Following strong criticism of her exit deal, Mrs May yesterday emphasised Britain’s future relationship with the bloc was still being negotiated and would ­deliver on the 2016 Brexit vote.

“Of all the lies that are currently being peddled, the worst is that this agreement can somehow be remedied in the next stage of the talks,” Mr Johnson wrote in his weekly column for The Daily Telegraph.

“I have heard it said that this is like a football match, in which we are one-nil down at half-time, but as the Prime Minister suggested in her interview ... we can still pull it back and get the Brexit we want.

“I am afraid this is either a tragic illusion or an attempt at ­deception ... we are about to give the EU the right to veto our departure from the Customs union. Why should they let us go?”

Mr Johnson, who resigned in protest at Mrs May’s Brexit plans in July, is viewed as a potential successor to the British leader.

Several ministers, including her Brexit minister, resigned last week and some of her own members of parliament are seeking to oust her. But Mrs May was due to toughen her stand early this morning when she was to address business leaders, making clear that she would not attempt to ­reopen negotiations with the EU over the withdrawal agreement.

European citizens would no longer be able to “jump the queue” for jobs in Britain, the Prime Minister was expected to pledge. In a speech to the biggest business lobby, the Confederation of British Industry, she was expected to claim the deal would fulfil the central aim of the referendum campaign to control immigration while still allowing businesses the ability to recruit from overseas.

The deal being negotiated in Brussels for the future relationship would allow Britain for the first time to create a level playing field, as EU citizens compete with other countries for the right to work in Britain.

“The difference will be this: once we have left the EU, we will be fully in control of who comes here,” she was to say. “It will no longer be the case that EU nationals, regardless of the skills or experience they have to offer, can jump the queue ahead of engineers from Sydney or software developers from Delhi.

“Instead of a system based on where a person is from, we will have one built around the talents and skills a person has to offer.”

Mrs May was expected to receive tentative CBI backing for her deal. CBI president John Allan was expected to say that while the deal was “not perfect”, it did respect the referendum while minimising the “damage” to the economy.

Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tories that oversees the election of party leaders, yesterday said he had not yet received the threshold of 48 letters needed to trigger a formal vote of no confidence in the prime minister.

He said if and when it was reached, he would “expe­dit­ious­ly” trigger a vote. Sources suggested this could come within 24 hours of the threshold being met.

Reuters, The Times