Brexit: Don’t betray voters on Europe, Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski warns PM
Eurosceptic MP Daniel Kawczynski today pledged to oppose any deal that betrayed the Brexit referendum voters.
His threat came as the Government approaches a vital moment in the process to leave the European Union.
Theresa May and her cabinet will meet on Friday in an effort to thrash out a final position for Britain as it looks to negotiate Brexit.
It comes amid talk of division and acrimony within senior Tories – and even the possibility of resignations and an ultimate challenge to Mrs May’s leadership.
MPs in Shropshire and Mid Wales today spoke of the importance of the meeting at Chequers. And while most are fully behind the Prime Minister, Mr Kawczynski pledged to study in detail any agreement she and her cabinet come up with.
The MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham said he would be looking at it “in fine detail” and said he would oppose anything that compromised either Britain’s ability to control its borders or the primacy of British law.
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Mr Kawczynski has emerged in recent weeks as a keen ally of Jacob Rees-Mogg, who is considered one of the main antagonists in the Tory party over Brexit.
Mr Rees-Mogg last night laughed off suggestions he was plotting a leadership bid, saying he is as likely to become the next Pope as the next Prime Minister. The arch-Eurosceptic insisted he was not “personally ambitious” and said he was not aware of a £750,000 war chest reportedly raised by supporters for an eventual leadership bid.
Mr Kawczynski said there had been much coverage about what business wanted from any deal, but he said it was important not to lose focus on why people voted to leave in the first place.
“I’m firmly of the belief that the people of Shropshire, and indeed Britain, voted to leave for us to reclaim our sovereignty as a nation,” said Mr Kawczynski.
Expecting
“People voted to take back control of our borders, to ensure that our Supreme Court is supreme within the jurisdiction of the UK, and that is what I am expecting the Prime Minister and the Government to adhere to.”
He said he would study any agreement in very close detail, and would listen carefully to the views of his constituents, adding: “When Mr Cameron came back from negotiating with the EU before the referendum, I studied the agreement line by line, and came to the conclusion that it was a fig-leaf, which was why I couldn’t support it and campaigned to leave.”
Mr Kawczynski said he did believe in the role of collective responsibility in cabinet, and said any debates or disagreements should be strictly behind closed doors. Citing Michael Heseltine’s resignation as defence secretary in 1986 over the Westland Affair, he said any minister who could not publicly support the government line should resign.
Ludlow MP Philip Dunne said it was important that ministers managed to come to a satisfactory agreement that they could take to Brussels, adding: “I think we do need to do what we said in the manifesto, which was to pull out of the single market and the customs union, but we need to have a free-trade agreement which ensures as frictionless trade as possible.”
Montgomeryshire MP Glyn Davies also said he very much hoped that a deal could be reached, and said all sides needed to show a bit of flexibility. He said: “There will be compromises needed by all sides. We have got to work together and come to an agreement we can all back, even if it isn’t exactly what we want.”
Owen Paterson, MP for North Shropshire, said: “We are democrats and I think there will be the most terrible shattering dissolution with the whole political establishment and all our institutions if we don’t deliver what the referendum asked for.”
Telford MP Lucy Allan added: “Despite much opposition over recent months from the House of Lords, media, think-tanks and opposition parties, the Prime Minister knows it is her duty to deliver Brexit and the Cabinet must support that and I believe they will.
“I am confident that Theresa May will achieve a deal as no deal would be detrimental to EU member states.”
