Section:GDN 1J PaGe:1 Edition Date:190815 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 14/8/2019 18:50 cYanmaGentaYellowbla
T
hroughout his nine years in
Conservative-led British cabinets, Philip
Hammond was regularly compared to AA
Milne’s Eeyore. But what the lugubrious
former chancellor did yesterday was
almost Tiggerish. By warning that Boris
Johnson’s government is set on driving
through a no-deal Brexit that parliament
will oppose he gave the UK’s indolent August politics a
much-needed wake-up call.
In the three weeks since a hard-Brexit Tory coup
put Johnson into Downing Street, politics has drifted
into La-La land. An accumulated combination of
long parliamentary stalemate, public weariness, an
ineff ectual Labour opposition, a compliant press and
the well-executed strategy of the new Tory leader has
made the Johnson government ’s Brexit policy seem
more inevitable than it actually is. By breaking cover,
Hammond has provided an overdue reminder that the
facts are still the facts.
Hammond’s argument, set out in a Times article
and a Today programme interview, boils down to fi ve
big points. First, the hit to the economy from no deal
will be both immediate and enduring. Second, no deal
risks hastening the break-up of the United Kingdom.Third, voters were not off ered no deal in 2016 and did
not vote for it. Fourth, Johnson’s demand to scrap the
Irish backstop is a wrecking tactic designed to hasten a
no-deal outcome. Finally, a sovereign parliament can,
should and will stop no deal.
None of this is new. But it has rarely been stated
with such cold-eyed cogency by such a senior recent
Tory minister. The Brexit saga might have been rather
diff erent if Hammond had said it two years ago. The
timing is nevertheless important. This is the mid-point
of the summer parliamentary recess. Johnson has been
impressively resetting the political agenda. But the
return of parliament is getting closer. Hammond’s aim
this week was to end the phoney peace.
Central to that is a last -ditch attempt to revitalise the
slim possibility of a negotiated withdrawal. It remains
the case that around two-thirds of Tory MPs in the House
of Commons have voted three times for a negotiated
withdrawal. Johnson himself still claims to want one.
Hammond’s initiative confronts him with a choice.
Does Johnson start talking to the EU, thereby spending
some of his political capital and putting his position
in his party at risk? Or does he ignore
negotiations, thus maximising the number
of Tory MPs who could vote him down?India’s illegal power grab turns Kashmir into a colony Mirza Waheed, page 3
Don’t ignore dementia – it aff ects us all Nicci Gerrard, page 5
The pedantic my th of language decline The long read, page 9
The Guardian
ILLUSTRATION:
EVA BEEThursday 15 August 2019
Britain faces a
nation-defi ning
battle that will
split the Tories
Opinion
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InsideMartin
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