The tough Lord Frost abandons the negotiation of the Irish Protocol and presents himself as a possible leader of the conservative dissidents
David Frost, minister for relations with the European Union in the British Cabinet, formalized his immediate resignation this Saturday night, after the publication by the ‘Mail on Sunday’ that he had agreed a week ago to march with the prime minister , Boris Johnson. The pact between the two would have planned the announcement for January, but the leak of his resignation forced the steps to be accelerated.
“Many said that it was impossible to achieve what we achieved: ending the turbulence by implementing the referendum result, an astonishing electoral victory, an exit from the EU that gave us absolute independence as a country over our decisions in the future and finally , implement the most comprehensive free trade agreement in the world and the only one without tariffs “, says in his letter a minister never accused of being modest.
Then, the former diplomat who until yesterday was in charge of negotiating the reforms of the Irish Protocol, which has caused economic and political tensions in Northern Ireland, aligns himself with the conservatives who rebelled last week against restrictive measures to mitigate the impact of the new wave of the pandemic and spares no further criticism of the prime minister.
“You already know my concerns about the direction in which we are moving,” writes Lord Frost. “I hope that we move as quickly as possible to where we need to go: to an entrepreneurial economy, with light regulations and low taxes, at the forefront of modern science and economic change. Three hundred years of history shows that countries that take that route grow and prosper, and I am confident that we will too.
Beyond the usual courtesies, the farewell letter seems like Frost’s signal to carve a niche in the race to replace Johnson as party leader. Popular with affiliates for his toughness in negotiations with the EU, he now aligns himself with dissent grouped against the politics of the pandemic and in favor of a lesser role for the state. The ‘Mail on Sunday’ claims that it also opposes the CO2 emission reduction program.
Isolated
On Friday, Frost published a statement after his last meeting with the community negotiator, Mareos Sefcovich, in which he proposed to the EU a temporary agreement in January, delaying decisions on the most complicated aspects. The British ‘Brexit’ negotiator affirms in his resignation letter that it is the right time to pass the baton on to others.
Ten days ago, a senior official with a prominent role in these negotiations informed European correspondents that the Government had waived its request that the Court of Justice of the European Union arbitrate possible disputes over the implementation of the Protocol. Downing Street denied it, but Frost’s departure may also be related to that transfer on an issue that made the agreement with Brussels unlikely.
A Boris Johnson injured by rebellions, electoral defeats and investigations into the celebration of supposedly illegal parties during the confinement of December 2020 now loses another shield to protect himself from a large sector of the affiliation and the parliamentary group, with notable representatives in the Cabinet, who they do not share Johnson’s eclectic creed on the pandemic, the economy, or decarbonization.
If Theresa May has already made the mistake of creating a specific ministry for the negotiation of ‘Brexit’, Johnson could commit another with the appointment of a minister for that function. The most logical decision would be to return that role to the Foreign Ministry. But the head of the Foreign Office, Lizz Truss, also has ambitions to replace Johnson, is from the neoliberal wing of the party and voted to remain in the EU in 2016.
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