By Ben Kerrigan
Liam Fox, the minister of Transport, has admitted that a Brexit deal may never happen.
even started to discuss the details of its future trade agreement with Europe.
Fox was addressing calls for another referendum when he said that the prospect of Britain leaving
the EU without a deal would not warrant second referendum. In an interview with Sky News on Saturday, Fox said he sees “a very difficult end” to fraught discussions in which EU negotiators think they’re making too many concessions and British counterparts think they haven’t won enough commitments to guarantee the nation’s independence.
“We may or may not be able to get that agreement, in which case we would have to leave the European Union without one,” Fox said. “But we are not going to be bounced into another referendum, so that those who lost the previous one can try to apply continued membership of the European Union to the people of Britain in perpetuity.
That decision can’t be subcontracted to somebody else – that needs to be an issue for a sovereign British government to be able to determine,” he insisted. It is difficult to make Fox wrong on that, but advocates of a second referendum would ask Fox what he expects when the sovereign government he refers to is so deeply divided on an important matter of profound future and historic impact.
An effective contingency plan to keep an open border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland until the UK and EU settle their future relationship, has been a niggling hindrance to progress. Ireland is not prepared to compromise on its expectations about its boarder, and the prime minister is not fully independent of DUP politics.
Public denunciations made by Fox and recently resigned Johnson about the direction Brexit is taking provides further revelations about the deep divisions in the government surrounding Brexit. Fox recently stated that a decision about backstop can’t be subcontracted to somebody else, but rather needs to be an issue for a sovereign British government to be able to determine.”
Mr. Johnson described Brexit dilemmas as ”the most momentous question we will ever face in our political careers”, in an interview with the BBC Today Programme
“And everybody is thinking very hard about it.” He also said: “My priority is really just to do my bit as a now backbench MP to try and encourage the country to pause and reflect before we do something that is irrevocably stupid”
Mr Johnson denounced the choice between her deal or no-deal as a “failure of British statecraft on a scale unseen since the Suez crisis” that had left Britain facing “vassalage” or “chaos”. He called for a second referendum on the final deal of Brexit, something Downing Street has rejected in no uncertain terms.
I know many are reflecting hard about the deal that’s looming and how they will respond to it. It’s up to (lawmakers) to take a stand, I’ve done so, if others feel that it’s right for them to do so then good on them.” The pressure on Theresa May’s government to thoroughly present a final position on Brexit that addresses concerns properly, is mounting. May must have an answer to the internal conflict affecting a perception of chaos in his party. Her advisers need to step to the plate quickly and come up with a logical solution that at least provides some real hope about a Brexit outcome the British people can live with for generations to come.