Censure & unrepentant British PM

ASHIS RAY

The latest tension in Britain’s multi-act Brexit theatre pertains to Prime Minister Boris Johnson raising alarm bells about planning to bypass a law enacted by parliament, which restrains his government from leaving the European Union without an agreement.

Former premier Sir John Major’s apprehension was: “It is important to note that an order of council can be passed by privy councillors — that is government ministers — without involving HM the Queen.” The Guardian, on the contrary, quoted Cambridge law professor Mark Elliott, who asserted using the royal prerogative, the way feared by Major, would flout the 1688 Bill of Rights. He maintained: “Any suggestion that the prerogative could be used for this purpose is entirely without foundation.”

There are concerns of violent clashes between leavers and remainers if temperatures are not cooled forthwith. Yet, far from dousing the flames, Johnson has indulged in fanning them. There’s no sign of contrition despite the Supreme Court adjudging his advice to the British monarch and head of state, Queen Elizabeth II, to prorogue parliament as “unlawful”. Forced to cut short his visit to New York for the United Nations General Assembly, his boisterous repartee to women MPs’ comments in the House of Commons has caused consternation. Amber Rudd, until recently Johnson’s cabinet colleague, felt his rhetoric “legitimises violence”. 

He has in his two months as prime minister lost every vote in parliament and reduced his government to a minority in the Commons by withdrawing the whip from fellow Conservative MPs who supported the anti-no-deal bill. He survives in office only because of Britain’s five-year fixed term parliament Act, which has ironically also paralysed his functioning.

Johnson seems to believe he can win a snap general election by painting MPs opposed to him as villains obstructing Britain’s departure from the EU; and thereby even legitimise a no-deal Brexit. Opinion polls, though, forecast a hung parliament, with the Brexit party, which is most inimical to the EU, seen as damaging the Conservative Party’s prospects. In fact, the uncompromising and unanimous ruling of the 11-member Bench of the Supreme Court may also have shaken the confidence of a section of traditional Conservative supporters.

Such voters had thus far overlooked indiscretions in Johnson’s private life. Now they are exposed to an alleged sex-for-sponsorship scandal involving him and Californian model-turned-entrepreneur Jennifer Arcuri reported by the Sunday Times. The latter is said to have received grants to the tune of tens of thousands of pounds from the Greater London Authority and been taken as a delegate on trade missions to Tel Aviv, Singapore and Malaysia when Johnson was mayor of London. The piece, now widely picked up by other media, gossiped about Johnson’s visits to Arcuri’s London flat “during gaps in his mayoral diary”. Public reaction to this burgeoning story could have a bearing on Johnson’s future.

But much of the rumpus may be forgotten and forgiven at least by Conservatives if he pulls off a deal with the EU. A Special Economic Zone (SEZ) between Northern Ireland, which is a part of Britain, and the Republic of Ireland, which will continue to be an EU member state, is a potential solution, if London can satisfy Brussels that there will be no customs and VAT checks on the frontier between the two.

The Conservatives’ Northern Irish ally, the Democratic Unionist Party, hitherto resistant to the idea, has altered its tune. Businesses in Belfast had warned of significant job losses in the absence of a single market window with the EU. The police in the region have surmised there is a danger of terrorism once more raising its ugly head if a hard border is reintroduced. Besides, a survey in Northern Ireland sensed an inclination towards an Irish reunion, which is anathema to the hard-line Protestant DUP, historically hostile towards the predominantly Catholic Republic of Ireland.

So, a worried DUP has been compelled to consider the proposed SEZ, which would also eliminate the sticking point of a “backstop” or a border in the middle of the Irish Sea that divides mainland Britain and the Irish isles. It’s a matter of carving a balance between the rival red lines of all parts of Britain equally regaining sovereignty while respecting the 1998 Good Friday Agreement of free movement and trade between the two Irelands.

Britons, by and large, are anxious to terminate the three-year post-referendum uncertainty. The Labour Party wants retention of the customs union, the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish Nationalists reject Brexit altogether. They will need to think twice before rejecting a reasonable deal.

— The writer is a senior journalist based in London