Page QQQ Daily Mail, Wednesday, August 28, 2019BATTLE FOR BREXIT
Javid: No blank
cheques for
cash splurge
SAJID Javid last night warned there will
not be any ‘blank cheques’ for govern-
ment departments ahead of Brexit.
The Chancellor said he will not break the
Government’s fiscal rules on public spend-
ing amid fresh speculation over an immi-
nent general election.
Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Mr Javid
announced he will disclose the results of a
one-year spending review next Wednes-
day – with more money for schools, the
police and the NHS.
But he stopped short of saying there
would be a pre-Brexit cash splurge. He
said: ‘We can afford to spend more on the
people’s priorities, without breaking
the rules around what the Government
should spend, and we’ll do that in a few key
areas like schools, hospitals and police.
‘But it’s vital we continue to live within
our means as a country.’
Meanwhile, he cancelled his first major
speech the day before he was due to give
it. The Treasury said it had been called off
because its ‘themes and priorities’ would
instead be set out in the spending round in
early September.
The decision to fast-track efforts to draw
up spending plans was announced earlier
this month – although the target date was
September, not ‘early September’.
The timing is likely to heighten talk of an
early election as Boris Johnson seeks to
secure Brexit.ment if it’s brought back.’
Mr Johnson yesterday spoke
to European Commission
President Jean-Claude
Juncker by telephone and re-
iterated there was ‘no pros-
pect’ of a deal unless the
backstop was taken out.
But government sources
yesterday said they were opti-
mistic about the prospect of
movement from Brussels.
They said: ‘There has been
a rhetorical shift from the EU
compared to a month ago,
when they were insisting the
backstop and the Withdrawal
Agreement were sacrosanct.
‘Our position is that we
must now try to prise open
some space for negotiation.
There’s definitely a willing-
ness from the French and
Germans to engage.’
Mr Johnson is said to have
impressed EU leaders at the
G7 summit in Biarritz, with a
source telling the Mail they
are now ‘buoyed’ after he
convinced them he is serious
about reaching a deal.
German Chancellor Angela
Merkel was said to be partic-
ularly open to thrashing out acompromise. EU sources said
Brussels is now open to re-
working elements of Mrs
May’s deal relating to the
Irish backstop, having
insisted for months it could
not be re-opened.
It came amid reports by the
Wall Street Journal that one
proposal being mulled over
by Downing Street would see
the current backstop largely
stripped down to cover onlyin Brussels was now ‘more
buoyant and enthusiastic’.
One source told the Mail: ‘If
one thing has changed since
Biarritz, it’s that we know
he’s serious about trying to
do a deal. There’s now more
of an openness to listen, it’s
like “maybe they aren’t so
hell-bent on No Deal”.’
Another said: ‘It wouldn’t
be a massive re-write. But if
we can deliver the same aims
as the backstop, if it’s legally-
binding, protects the integ-
rity of the single market and
stability in Ireland, then I
think changes can be made...
you can start delivering spe-
cific bits and stripping down
some bits of the backstop.’
Mr Johnson continued his
charm offensive yesterday by
holding calls with Dutch pre-
mier Mark Rutte as well as
with Mr Juncker.
An EU Commission spokes-
man said: ‘President Juncker
repeated his willingness to
work constructively with
Prime Minister Johnson and
to look at any concrete pro-
posals he may have.’dent] Donald Tusk, he said a deal is his
biggest priority. He said getting rid of the
backstop would make the Withdrawal
Agreement satisfactory.
‘He voted for the Withdrawal Agree-
ment the third time it came back to Par-
liament. Can you trust Boris Johnson,‘Mood has
shifted’BORIS Johnson is on course for a
showdown with his Brexiteer MPs
after he last night looked set to revive
Theresa May’s deal if the Irish back-
stop is removed.
Brussels was softening its opposition to
re-opening the Withdrawal Agreement
after Mr Johnson convinced EU leaders
at the G7 summit he would settle for a
compromise, sources said yesterday.
It is understood British officials will
today try to persuade their EU counter-
parts that negotiations must be formally
re-opened, with the Prime Minister’s
chief negotiator David Frost – nicknamed
his ‘Sherpa’ – travelling to Brussels amid
growing optimism that fresh talks could
lead to a reworked deal.
But Mr Johnson risks a confrontation
with the so-called Brexit ‘Spartans’ if he
brings back the bulk of Mrs May’s deal
with the Irish backstop removed.
Asked yesterday whether Mr Johnson
was willing to accept the existing With-
drawal Agreement without the contro-
versial backstop, a Downing Street
spokesman said: ‘We have been clear
the changes we are seeking relate to
the backstop.’
A No 10 source added: ‘We know we are
going to have a showdown with the Spar-
tans at some point.’
It comes after fellow Brexiteer Iain Dun-
can Smith, writing in the Telegraph yes-
terday, described Mrs May’s deal as a
‘pig’s breakfast’ under which the UK
‘would surrender control to the EU far
beyond the backstop’.
Speaking to the Mail last night, he said:
‘It’s not only the backstop that’s the
problem, there are other areas which
cause major problems.’
Last night prominent Brexiteer Andrew
Bridgen added: ‘Taking out the backstop
alone will not guarantee that I will be
able to vote for the Withdrawal Agree-By David Churchill
and John StevensFarage of
pact – if
NIGEL Farage offered Boris
Johnson a ‘non-aggression pact’
yesterday – but only so long as
there is a No Deal Brexit.
The Brexit Party leader said he
would agree an informal electoral
agreement with the Tories and put
‘country before party’ if there is a
commitment to take Britain out of
the EU without an agreement.
Such a pact could ensure ‘unstoppable’
momentum for an exit on October 31, he
said. But Mr Farage warned that if Mr
Johnson tried to pass some form of the
existing Withdrawal Agreement then he
would field candidates in every seat and
the Tories would be ‘electorally wiped
out’. He told the Prime Minister: ‘Deliver
or politically die’.
He spoke as the Brexit Party held a
Westminster rally to announce its next
wave of parliamentary candidates.
‘If Boris Johnson is prepared to do the
right thing for the independence of this
country, then we would put country
before party and do the right thing,’ Mr
Farage said.
‘We would be prepared to work with
him, perhaps in the form of a non-aggres-
sion pact at the general election. The
Conservative Party has lost so much
trust that the only way they could win a
general election is with our support.’
This would see some Brexit Party can-
didates standing down in certain areas
and them working together, he said.
In his address to candidates, during
which he received numerous standing
ovations, he added: ‘We can be their
worst enemy or their best friend.
‘Together we would be unstoppable
and he [Mr Johnson] would go down as‘Already going off
the rails’By Larisa Brown
Political CorrespondentBucks Fizz star
makes up her
mind... to be
a Brexit MP
SHE won Eurovision in 191 with
Bucks Fizz, performing Making Your
Mind Up. Now Jay Aston is hoping to
triumph on the European front
once again.
The 5-year-old was announced
yesterday as one of the Brexit Par-
ty’s general election candidates.
She will stand in the West London
seat of Kensington, which is
currently held by Labour. ‘I used to
live in Kensington and it still feels
like home,’ she said.
‘I want to stand for the Brexit Party
and fight to uphold democracy for
the sake of the people.’
The singer, from Purley, south Lon-
don, was – at just 19 – the youngest in
the original Bucks Fizz line-up with
Cheryl Baker, Mike Nolan and Bobby
G, when their famous skirt-ripping
routine helped them win Eurovision.
Last year she revealed she had
undergone a seven-hour operation
for mouth cancer which had threat-
ened to end her singing career. She
is now cancer-free.
She was in the band from 191 to
195, during which time they had 12
UK top 40 singles, including three
number one hits. She is married to
musician David Colquhoun.191: In Bucks Fizz, front left
By Political CorrespondentPM faces clash
with Brexiteers
over reviving
Mrs May’s plan
one of the great heroes in British history.’
Mr Farage said that his party had spent
the summer selecting 635 candidates to
fight every seat.
Even if Mr Johnson managed to remove
the backstop from Theresa May’s With-
drawal Agreement, it would still be the
‘worst deal in history’.
Mr Farage, the former Ukip leader, said
that a No Deal was now ‘the only accept-
able deal’.
‘The Withdrawal Agreement is not
Brexit. It is a betrayal of what 17.4million
people voted for.
‘If you insist on the Withdrawal Agree-
ment, Mr Johnson, we will fight you in
every seat up and down the country.’
He said that he did not campaign for
Brexit so ‘foreign judges could overrule
laws made in this country’.
The acid test for Brexit was whether
the UK would ‘take back what is right-
fully ours’, he said, and this would not
happen under the current deal.
‘I think there is a greater than 50 per
cent chance that we will face a general
election in the autumn,’ he said, suggest-
ing that the Prime Minister could not be
trusted to deliver a ‘clean’ Brexit and
adding ‘a few weeks into his premiership
Boris is already going off the rails’.
He said: ‘I’m pleased Boris Johnson has
brought some energy and optimism to
that job. I’m pleased he has said we will
leave “do or die” on October 31. The
trouble is we have heard it all before. In
his letter to [European Council presi-agricultural issues – known
as a ‘mini backstop’.
The idea would be for
Northern Ireland or the UK
as a whole to stay aligned to
Brussels rules relating only to
animal sanitary checks.
Crucially, the UK would be
outside of the customs union
and single market and would
be free to strike new trade
deals as long as they upheld
agricultural standards.
EU sources said the mood