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High-level conservatives have criticized Boris Johnson’s handling of Brexit trade negotiations and his threat to deploy Royal Navy gunboats to patrol UK fishing waters in the event of a no deal.
With Sunday’s deadline for reaching an agreement fast approaching, the Defense Ministry confirmed that four armed 80-meter vessels had been put on hold to protect British waters from EU trawlers from 1 January, absence of an agreement on fishing rights.
Tobias Ellwood, Conservative Chairman of the Commons defense committee, called the threat to deploy gunboats “irresponsible”, when the focus should be on reaching a deal, while former EU Commissioner Chris Patten accused the prime minister of behaving as an “English nationalist”.
Johnson said on Friday that fishing rights were one of the two main impediments to a deal, the other is how to maintain fair competition once the UK can set its own standards and regulations from the end of the transition period in three weeks. .
The preparation of the Navy vessels is likely to be interpreted as a warning to Brussels about the consequences of a failure to reach a trade deal, an outcome both sides have said is now the most likely outcome.
Ellwood, a former defense minister, told BBC Radio 4’s Today program: “I think these headlines are absolutely irresponsible. We have to focus on what is already in the bag: 98% of the deal is there, there are three or four outstanding issues.
“Important as they are, let’s park those for the future. Let’s get this agreement because economically, but more importantly, for international reputation it would be very damaging for Great Britain, it would be a step backwards, a failure of the art of government ”.
Patten, also speaking to Today, accused Johnson of being on a “runaway train of English exceptionalism.” The former chairman of the Conservative Party added: “I hope I am wrong to feel so depressed by the outlook, but I don’t think Mr Johnson is a Conservative, I think he is an English nationalist.
“And all the things that conservatives used to believe, like defending the union, not attacking our institutions, like judges, like believing in international cooperation, seem to have gone out the window.”
Top trade negotiators, Michel Barnier from the EU and David Frost from the UK, were due to start negotiating again shortly before noon Saturday in Brussels, and talks are also scheduled for Sunday.
Details about efforts to beef up the protection of British waters emerged after some government supporters suggested such a move, including Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski. He tweeted on Friday that naval forces should be deployed in the new year “to prevent illegal French fishing in our waters.”
Sir Alan West, a former admiral and naval chief of staff, said it was right for the Royal Navy to deploy if necessary. “It is absolutely appropriate for the Royal Navy to protect our waters if the position is that we are a sovereign state and our government has said that we do not want other nations there,” he told Today.
