John Bruton: Boris Johnson misled British public on Brexit

Former taoiseach John Bruton has said Ireland should keep alive the possibility of Britain abandoning its Brexit plan, or rejoining the EU once it leaves.

Mr Bruton accused British foreign secretary Boris Johnson of having “criminally misled” the UK over the consequences of leaving the EU, before rowing back and tempering his remarks.

“Boris Johnson attempted to simplify the Brexit issue by saying we can have our cake and eat it,” he told an Oireachtas committee.

“It was a memorable phrase and it was criminally wrong. It criminally misled – I shouldn’t say criminally, it is not criminally – but it irresponsibly misled the people of Britain.”

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Mr Bruton said the terms for Brexit as set out so far by British prime minister Theresa May May would “do incalculable damage to this island, politically, emotionally and economically” and he warned “we cannot simply wait for this to happen”.

He argued Ireland should influence the EU to leave pre-2015 membership terms “on the table” for Britain, as a best alternative to Britain simply “crashing out” of the EU in 2019 with no future agreement in place.

Addressing the Seanad Special Committee on the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union on Thursday, Mr Bruton argued that the EU economy was improving and its position was strengthening.

Meanwhile he said “numerous concessions have been made by its EU partners to keep the UK within the EU Treaties”.

Mr Bruton said Ireland, while seeking to mitigate the “hard Brexit chosen by Mrs May” must also do “everything we can to ensure either that, at the end of the day, there is no Brexit.”

A crucial issue would be for the European Council to determine what would be its “ best alternative to a negotiated agreement” an issue he gave the acronym Batna.

He said it is important to have such an alternative ready, of the likelihood that no agreement will be reached within the two year time frame for negotiation and ratification of a withdrawal agreement.

No deal would mean the UK leaving EU sometime before the end of March 2019, ending trade and commerce agreements.

But Mr Bruton said if the UK did not put forward a responsible “best available alternative to a negotiated agreement then the EU side should do so for it”.

He said this could be guided by Ireland and while it may be hard to envisage now, could result in a volte face on the part of the British electorate.

“Parts of the Brexit scenario, obscured during the referendum, will become clearer during the negotiation.

“When the UK public comes to see that the alternative to a single set of EU rules, is either no rules at all, or multiple sets of contradictory rules in both the EU countries and the UK, it may come see EU membership in a different and better light” he said.

In his view, the “best available alternative to a negotiated agreement”, the Batna, that the EU side should adopt, is an offer of continuing UK membership of the EU” broadly on the basis that the UK enjoyed sub 2015, “before David Cameron’s ill fated “renegotiation”.

Mr Bruton said in his view the “best available alternative to a negotiated agreement” that the EU side should adopt, is an offer of continuing UK membership of the EU broadly on the basis that pertained in 2015.

“The terms obtaining then were generous to the UK. They allowed it to opt out of the euro, of Schengen, of Justice and Policing cooperation, of the Stability and Growth Pact, and of the justiciability in the UK of the European Convention.

“In that sense, the UK was already having its cake, while eating it, before it ever decided on Brexit. These pre 2015 terms should be left on the table.”