Brexit ‘in danger’ as Suella Braverman fears ‘disgraceful’ Labour decision is warning sign | Politics | News

Suella Braverman has claimed the Labour Government’s “disgraceful” Chagos Islands deal is evidence that Sir Keir Starmer is planning to “betray” Brexit.

The former Home Secretary and Attorney General, and current Tory MP for Fareham and Waterlooville, whose husband yesterday quit the Tories for Reform UK, fears Labour is ready to “squander” the benefits of quitting the bloc by cosying up to Brussels – characterising the process as a “drip-drip erosion”.

Ms Braverman’s interview with the Bruges Group’s Dr Frank Millard was shared by the think tank yesterday evening, hours after news of Rael Braverman’s decision was made public.

It also coincided with Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ visit to Brussels for meeting with EU finance ministers which she described afterwards an attempt to “reset relations”.

Her remark will doubtless have concerned Ms Braverman, who used one specific Government policy to illustrate her concerns.

Speaking on November 12, she explained: “I point to the Chagos Islands and the disgraceful decision being made by this Labour government.

“We need to project strength and we need to ensure we are the party of Brexit. I very much fear for Brexit under this government.

“I believe that they will begin the undoing of Brexit, that they will start to forge a relationship of closer alignment with the EU that they will surrender on free movement of people in some form, they already talking about some kind of defence pact.”

Ms Braverman is a former chairwoman of the European Research Group who consistently refused to back ex-PM Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement.

The 44-year-old, widely believed to be considering joining Nigel Farage’s party herself, continued: “We don’t need a defence pact with the European Union. We’ve got NATO. That’s the bulwark of peace inside and beyond Europe.

“So the party of low taxation, enterprise, work. We need to be the party of the family and aspiration and we need to be, bold on our foreign policy and standing up British values and national pride.”

She stressed: “I’m worried about Brexit. I voted for Brexit and campaigned for it in 2016.

“I then resigned over the betrayal terms of the Theresa May deal in 2018 as a Brexit minister and voted against the deal three times.

“I’m one of the 28 Spartans and I’m very very worried that everything we all fought and for many of your supporters in the Bruges Group will be casually squandered by this Labour government in a way that will be undemocratic.”

Ms Braverman warned: “I think that there will be a drip-drip erosion of the benefits of the Brexit. You’re right, Frank, we did Brexit, but we didn’t do all of it, so we got out of the European Union technically and constitutionally, but we still didn’t tackle freedom of movement.”

Britain had failed to take advantage of the regulatory benefits and opportunities for Brexit, she emphasised.

She said: “We stuck a lot of trade deals, many of those roll over deals, so we haven’t yet struck new territory trade deals, that’s a mixed picture.

“We’ve obviously signed and the uh comprehensive transpacific partnership, but with major players like India or the US, those are still distant prospects at the moment.”

There was “a real need to defend what’s been achieved so far” with Brexit, but also to go further, Ms Braverman added.

She explained: “One of the big areas is obviously migration, but I don’t hold that much confidence that the government is going to really make the most of lowering migration and those powers, the second area, which we remain to tangible difference to people, is when it comes to regulations. And we still have far too many too much retained EU law on our statute books.

“We still have too much alignment with EU directives and laws and rules, and we haven’t yet flexed our regulatory muscles in a way that has been afforded to us.

“And so I think it’s incumbent on many of us to keep arguing and urging the government to make most of those breaks of people from a regulatory point of view that cut costs with businesses, that would increase their profits that will increase efficiency, that would lead to more productivity. That’s the vision of Brexit and we must lose it.”

Speaking after her meeting today, Ms Reeves said: “Economic growth is not a zero-sum game.

“Countries right across Europe, inside and outside the European Union, including the UK, have struggled with low growth, poor productivity and stagnant living standards these last few years.

“Competitiveness and trade, crucially, are really important for driving productivity and growth.

“And so, as we reset our relations, it is with the purpose of growing our economy and improving living standards for ordinary working people.”