‘BREXIT BRIEF’ – ISSUE 106, 14 February 2020

Cummings and goings 

The big news in Westminster this week was Boris Johnson’s botched Government reshuffle. Speaking at a Confederation of British Industry conference in November, the Prime Minister said: 'I'm going to give you an absolutely categorical assurance that I will keep Sajid Javid as my Chancellor!” But yesterday Javid was forced to resign after Johnson demanded that he sack all five of his Special Advisers and replace them with employees chosen by Dominic Cummings, Johnson’s de-facto Chief of Staff. Speaking last night, an angry Javid retorted: “No self-respecting Minister would accept the conditions offered by the Prime Minister.” His comments would not have been welcomed by Rishi Sunak, Javid’s replacement as Chancellor of the Exchequer, who had no hesitation in bending the knee to Johnson and his team in return for the keys to No11 Downing Street. (He was a junior Housing Minister just seven months ago).

It had been an open secret in UK Government circles that Javid had “butted heads” with Cummings several times since his appointment last summer. Last August, Javid’s press adviser Sonia Khan was sacked by Cummings and escorted from her desk by armed police after being accused of leaking information to journalists. More recently, “sources close to Boris Johnson” (i.e. Cummings) had labelled Javid “CHINO” – “Chancellor In Name Only” – in a crude effort to undermine his authority and increase the Prime Minister’s hand in the forthcoming Budget, which last night the Government refused to confirm will go ahead as planned on 11 March.    

In other reshuffle news, Jake Berry has resigned as Northern Powerhouse Minister after Boris Johnson downgraded the job. This is the same Boris Johnson who has constantly claimed that the Northern Powerhouse would be at the heart of all his works. And the key position of Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs was handed to George Eustice, formerly a Minister of State in the Department. Eustice resigned from Theresa May’s Government after he believed she had not taken a sufficiently pro-Brexit line. He will be joined at DEFRA by former Tory MP Zac Goldsmith, who lost his Commons seat for the second time in three years at the General Election before being given a fast track peerage by the Prime Minister. Other appointments will be made in the coming hours, after which I will produce a ‘Brexit Made Simple’ with a full round-up of where all the big jobs went and why. This will be available to read from Monday.        

Boared with Brexiteer lies   

I was not far from the action in Westminster yesterday, although the ambience was much more convivial. It was the Worshipful Company of Butchers’ annual presentation of a Boar’s Head to the Lord Mayor of London (for land the Company no longer uses and he no longer owns, but we are sticklers for tradition!) One of the hot topics of conversation was the ongoing debate amongst EU27 ambassadors on hardening their negotiating mandate for the future relationship talks with the UK, due to start next month. Several members states - including France – want the bar on the “level playing field” provisions to be set even higher than outlined in the draft document published just days ago. 

Also this week, Michel Barnier – the EU’s Chief Negotiator – warned that the UK should be “under no illusion” that Brussels would control Single Market access for the British financial services sector after the transition period ends. The normally impeccably polite European Council President, Ursula von der Leyen, also mocked the UK Government’s description of a no-deal Brexit as “the Australian model.” She said: “The European Union does not have a trade agreement with Australia. We are currently trading on WTO terms. And if this is the British choice, well, we are fine with that without any question. But, in fact, we are in the moment where we are agreeing with Australia that we must end this situation and we work on a trade deal with them.” Right on cue, self-satisfied Brexiteer clever trousers Michael Gove (who has never run a business) chose to tell UK businesses at a roundtable event that they would need to prepare for “significant change” with “inevitable” border checks for “almost everybody” who imports from the EU from next year. This, despite the same Michael Gove repeatedly promising voters during the EU referendum campaign that “frictionless” trade with Europe would continue after Brexit. Perhaps he just forgot.

Meanwhile in America…

Days after avoiding removal from office, Donald Trump demonstrated the futility of claims from some Republican Senators (who saved his orange skin) that he had “learnt lessons from the experience.” First, he fired two US Government officials for the shared crime of telling a Congressional committee the truth about his Ukrainian misdemeanours. And then he savaged federal prosecutors who recommended a stiff jail term for his long-time adviser Roger Stone who was convicted of lying to Congress, obstruction of justice and witness tampering. (A Presidential pardon is on the way).

But arguably the most significant Stateside story of the week was Trump’s Twitter spat with billionaire ex-New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg who, with former Vice-President Joe Biden’s campaign in decline, has now put himself firmly in the running to be the Democratic candidate in November’s Presidential election. Yesterday, Trump tweeted: “Mini Mike is a 5’4” mass of dead energy who does not want to be on the debate stage with these professional politicians. No boxes please.” Bloomberg hit back: “We know many of the same people in New York. Behind your back they laugh at you and call you a carnival barking clown.” It would be fun to scoff at Trumpworld, but I fear that Borisland is no better.

Have a splendid weekend!   

Jason

Dr Jason Aldiss BEM

Managing Director, Eville & Jones

You can follow me on Twitter @JasonAldiss