Exclusive : “Brexit Betrayed by Boris” – in writing to the EU

Boris Johnson writes a 4-page letter to Brussels about Northern Ireland

Credit : No.10

The PM presents another surrender proposal to Brussels

Below we publish the letter sent by Prime Minister the Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP to unelected EU Council President Donald Tusk yesterday.

Almost the only issue it addresses is the Northern Ireland Backstop. Whilst the Backstop defines many unacceptable issues, it does not change all the other parts of the disastrous “Withdrawal Agreement”, nor does it alter any parts of the equally disastrous “Political Declaration”.

Readers can read the Prime Minister’s 4-page letter by clicking the image below.

Credit : No.10

The Prime Minister’s letter to Donald Tusk fails to address Brexit

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

“The changes we seek relate primarily to the backstop.”

- Letter from the UK Prime Minister to the EU Council President, 19 Aug 2019

Only three weeks ago in an interview with the BBC in Faslane, Scotland, the Prime Minister stated:

“The Withdrawal Agreement is dead. It’s got to go.”

- Boris Johnson, interview on BBC News, Jul 29, 2019

We agreed with Mr Johnson then, why has he done a u-turn now?

Brexit Facts4EU.Org has always held a consistent position on the “Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration” drawn up by the EU and British civil servant Ollie Robbins, and approved by Mrs May and her Cabinet.

On their publication we declared these two documents to be an abomination – a “surrender treaty” – which would place the United Kingdom into the status of being the EU’s first colony.

Removing the Northern Ireland Backstop is simply not good enough

Boris Johnson told the BBC: “The Withdrawal Agreement is dead. It’s got to go.” As political statements go, this is about as bald as they get. Sadly it seems that this statement no longer represents the view of the British Prime Minister – the man who uttered this statement.

All the media reports we have read overnight have completely missed the big news. The Prime Minister has done a u-turn. On the BBC and Sky News, and in the newspapers, the narrative is all about Boris Johnson’s demand that the Northern Ireland Backstop be removed – as if this were news. It’s not.

The reality is that even if the Backstop were removed, the Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration are still abominations. These documents do not represent the restoration of sovereignty, nor Brexit as a whole as understood by the 17.4 million people who voted for it.

Our “15 fundamental reasons why Mrs May’s Withdrawal Agreement is an abomination”

In February we published one of our famous “one-pagers”.

It summarises in as short a form as we could manage why the WA should be rejected in its entirety.

Readers can access this one-page summary by clicking the image to the left.

We seriously doubt that Mr Johnson has read this. We are further of the opinion that neither he nor the vast majority of MPs have actually read the full withdrawal documents from the EU.

The official EU documents comprising Mrs May’s surrender treaty

The actual documents comprising the Withdrawal Agreement and the Political Declaration were lodged in the Official Journal of the EU on 19 February 2019. In condensed form they comprise 204 pages and readers can access them here.

These are Remainer documents, written by the EU with the assistance of Remainer civil servants from the UK, under a Remainer Prime Minister.

Observations

The EU has said it will not re-open the Withdrawal Agreement. In that sense it could be said that the Prime Minister’s letter to the unelected EU Council President Donald Tusk is academic.

This is not our view.

With a new, pro-Brexit Prime Minister we would expect the complete repudiation of the supplicant and defeatist approach of the previous administration.

The EU should be told that their entire 'agreement' is – to paraphrase the vernacular of Boris Johnson – “piffle, tosh, and balderdash.” Three weeks ago the Prime Minister rejected the Withdrawal Agreement in its entirety. Now it seems that if only the Northern Ireland Backstop were removed it would be “fine and dandy.”

To say that we are disappointed would be to put it very, very mildly.

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[ Sources: UK Government | EU Commission ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, 20 Aug 2019

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Reader Comments 19

11. James Bertram , Tuesday, August 20, 2019, 11:39:

There is more discussion of this topic on John Redwood's Diary today.

12. Chevron39 , Tuesday, August 20, 2019, 13:58:

I started reading the WA last December. I got to page 11 Article 4 which to summarise gives the power to the Commission/ECJ to dictate what legislation the Houses of Parliament introduces/passes. That is undemocratic and unacceptable to me. I read no further.
Comment 8. James Bertram I do not 'read between the lines' neither do the Courts. Just look at the facts and what is written..
As I write -some 4 hours after James's post the discussion is academic as Tusk has rejected Boris's letter out of hand. Hardly surprising as he lacks any diplomatic skills.
Will Merkle or The French say anything different? I doubt it. Should Boris go to Berlin and Paris? I question that decision. They both have a copy of the Tusk letter sent to them direct. Send them a cable saying 'do you accept the letter as a base for starting negotiations. If not - No visit. [Time enough at the G7 meeting].
We, every Leaver [17.4 million] must stand firm - No deal is better than a bad deal.

13. Patrick F , Tuesday, August 20, 2019, 14:56:

Does the EU offer the hand of friendship, or a raised, middle finger?

14. Norm , Tuesday, August 20, 2019, 15:52:

The letter written to the Council of Ministers in response to Boris' letter speaks volumes about the EU.
I believe Boris set a trap for them and they have walked blindly into it. I refer you to my comment earlier this morning.

15. Linda Jones , Tuesday, August 20, 2019, 18:06:

There is a website: standup4brexit.com where 46 MPs have signed up to a pledge saying they believe that Mrs May's WA 'deal' is dead.
MR BORIS JOHNSON is one of those. Perhaps he's forgotten what he believed in June of this year. Perhaps his attention should be drawn to it.

16. Adam David Hiley , Tuesday, August 20, 2019, 20:45:

don't believe everything You read in the lying British corporate press if the Conservatives did this they would be out of Office for Years not Labour but the Brexit Party or something similar would replace them

17. sharon stanton , Wednesday, August 21, 2019, 07:02:

Ref comment 14.
I agree with Norm, that Boris has played the eurocrats, they are so predictable. Boris had no intention of polishing a t urd.

18. g wood , Wednesday, August 21, 2019, 08:39:

This letter and subsequent publicised demands by BJ to remove the "backstop" & etc is clearly a massive bluff.
There is absolutely no way that a revived WA could be re-introduced to our parliament with or without a backstop for
several reasons:
1. The time factor is all important. Even if the 27 other members agree some sort of cobbled together agreement
it would have to be passed through the European parliament before the 31st October deadline. No time.
2. Likewise it would have to be passed through the H of C. Again, no time
3. BJ is not going to commit electoral suicide for himself and the Conservative party by pursuing a real WA objective with the Brexit
party waiting to swing into attack mode at the first opportunity.
4. BJ's strategy therefore is to make a pretence of having attempted to do all in his power to "negotiate" with the EU but knowing
full well that there is no hope of any progress - this is in order to appease remainers in his party. He can then say that "no deal"
therefore is the only option left. Time will then be on his side . He simply lets the clock run down until 31st October. Bingo!

19. Concerned , Wednesday, August 28, 2019, 04:57:

Boris Johnson told it ‘may be possible’ to prorogue Parliament - it certainly was in Major's time so no problem. It needs to be too.

19 comments, page 2 of 2

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