Bloomberg: Boris Johnson warns May to ‘get on with it’ and deliver Brexit

22 May 2018

In an exclusive interview with Bloomberg, Johnson said May is responsible for ensuring the UK takes back control over its tariff regime, and gains the power to break away from EU regulations if it chooses to.

If the final Brexit deal doesn’t deliver these conditions, it will fail to give the public the clean break from the bloc that they voted for, he suggested.

Johnson, who’s been talked about as a candidate to replace May, declined to say whether he’d resign if she doesn’t meet his conditions.

“The prime minister is the custodian of the plan, which is to come out of the customs union, out of the single market and to get on with it, to get on with that project with all convenient speed,” Johnson told Bloomberg Television on Tuesday. “Outward, free-trading countries -- what they want to hear from us is that we are getting on with it with confidence and brio and zap and dynamism.” [...]

Johnson was clear that he doesn’t want Britain to operate EU tariffs for a moment longer than necessary -- and he called for more clarity on how long this backstop plan would last. “It’s important for people to have a sense of when it’s going to happen and to be able to do it as fast as is reasonably possible,” he said.

Asked if he would be prepared to quit the Cabinet if May’s final Brexit deal binds Britain too tightly to European regulations, Johnson declined to answer directly.

But he set out exactly what he wants to see: “It means we take back control of our tariff schedules, we set our own tariffs, we run our own commercial policy,” Johnson said. “That’s very, very important. Otherwise, you’re not taking control of your laws, you’re not taking back control of your borders.”

Full article on Bloomberg


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