Brexit deal latest: Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg hit out at Theresa May as divorce deal 'reached'

Boris Johnson urged the cabinet to "chuck out" any Brexit deal
Getty Images
Patrick Grafton-Green13 November 2018
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Brexiteer MPs Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg have said they will vote down Theresa May’s divorce deal after negotiators reached an agreement in Brussels.

The prime minister will attempt to win over her cabinet in a meeting tomorrow before a "meaningful" vote in the House of Commons.

Former foreign secretary Mr Johnson said he would vote against the deal, claiming it was "vassal state stuff", and urged the cabinet to "chuck it out".

He said he expected the deal to be "pretty much" what had been agreed a few weeks ago.

"We are going to stay in the customs union on this deal, we are going to stay effectively in large parts of the single market and that means it's vassal state stuff," he told the BBC.

He added: "For the first time in a thousand years, this place, this parliament, will not have a say over the laws that govern this country. It is a quite incredible state of affairs."

Theresa May has called a cabinet meeting for Wednesday
REUTERS

Mr Johnson continued: "For the first time since partition, Dublin - under these proposals - would have more say in some aspects of the government of Northern Ireland than London.

"I don't see how you can support it from a democratic point of view, I don't see how unionists can support it, and I don't see how you can support it if you believe in the economic and political freedom of this country."

He claimed the deal was "making a nonsense of Brexit so I hope the cabinet will do the right thing and I hope they chuck it out".

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Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the pro-Brexit European Research Group of Tory MPs, said the reported deal represented a betrayal of Mrs May's promise to maintain the integrity of the UK.

"White flags have gone up all over Whitehall. It is a betrayal of the Union," he told the BBC.

"If what we have heard is true, this fails to meet the Conservative Party manifesto and it fails to meet many of the commitments that the prime minister makes.

MP and Pro-Brexit campaigner Jacob Rees-Mogg
EPA

"It would keep us in the customs union and de facto the single market. This is the vassal state.

"It is a failure of the government's negotiating position, it is a failure to deliver on Brexit and it is potentially dividing up the United Kingdom.

"It is very hard to see any reason why the cabinet should support Northern Ireland being ruled from Dublin."

Meanwhile DUP Brexit spokesman Sammy Wilson - whose party props up the government in the Commons - warned the prime minister she must honour the promises she had made to maintain the integrity of the the Union.

"These are promises which she made because she recognised that the integrity of the United Kingdom was important. She has made them time and time in the House and to us privately and to the public," he told the BBC.

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