Stephen Barclay urges Barnier to seek new mandate for Brexit talks to avoid no deal
EU leaders must give their chief negotiator Michel Barnier a fresh mandate to change the withdrawal agreement if they do not want to end up with no deal, Brexit secretary Stephen Barclay has said.
Barclay, who kept his position in Boris Johnson’s Cabinet overhaul, said MEPs in the European Parliament had changed since the European Parliamentary elections in May, illustrating the “need for a change of approach”.
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Barclay said: “EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier is telling us his instructions from European leaders mean he cannot change it. As he told me when we spoke last week, his mandate is his mandate – he can only negotiate what the Commission and leaders of member states have agreed.
“But the political realities have changed since Mr Barnier’s instructions were set. Since the last mandate was agreed, 61 per cent of all the EU states’ MEPs have changed. Such a fundamental shift illustrates the need for a change of approach.
“Mr Barnier needs to urge EU leaders to consider this if they too want an agreement, to enable him to negotiate in a way that finds common ground with the UK. Otherwise, No Deal is coming down the tracks.”
The EU has repeatedly said that the withdrawal agreement cannot be opened or renegotiated.
But Johnson, who was elected as Tory party leader and Prime Minister at the end of last month, has said the withdrawal agreement is “dead” and that the Irish backstop – the insurance policy designed to prevent a hard border in Northern Ireland by keeping the UK in a temporary customs union with the EU – must be abolished.
Barclay said his election had strengthened the UK’s mandate to leave the EU on 31 October – something Johnson has pledged to do “come what may, do or die”.
Barclay’s no-deal warning follows a report in the Sunday Telegraph that Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s most senior aide, told ministers that MPs had missed their chance to block a no-deal Brexit.
Cummings, the architect of the official Vote Leave campaign, is said to have argued that the Prime Minister could schedule a general election after the 31 October deadline and leave the EU if he loses a vote of no confidence in parliament.
The earliest MPs would be able to table of vote of no confidence in Johnson is September, when parliament returns from recess.
However, Labour’s shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth told Sky News that there would be an opportunity in September to block a no-deal Brexit.
Read more: Mark Carney warns no-deal Brexit shock would be ‘instantaneous’
“There will be opportunities for us when parliament returns in September to stop no deal,” he said.
“The government will have to bring forward appropriate legislation to prepare for this Brexit no-deal exit that they want. And we will use all the means available to us in parliament … and we will work to stop no deal.”