Sunak must face down the vocal ‘hard Brexit’ minority within his own party

The terms of our Brexit deal are too important to become mired in the internal politics of a divided Conservative party

“We have to stop thinking if there is a deal that is about to be done, it means we’ve been done over in some way.” So said the rational Eurosceptic George Eustice over the weekend about the response of his more extreme colleagues to reports of changes to the Northern Ireland protocol. He’s right. 

The absurd over-reaction in recent weeks to changes to Northern Ireland’s relationship with the UK and the EU – changes which would make Northern Ireland more not less aligned with the rest of the UK – highlights the strange truth that the biggest obstacle to Brexit working is now the most hardcore of Brexiteers.

Look back ten years ago to what the Eurosceptic think-tanks were asking for then – a Swiss, or Norwegian, arrangement – and contrast to their hardline attitude today. Then, it was a question of pragmatism; leaving the European Union a chance to allow Britain to write its own regulatory handbook, sign its own trade deals and encourage the machinery of government to  move more quickly and more effectively. None of those are objectionable goals. 

Yet since the vote in 2016, the Brexiteers within the Tory party have never taken a backward step. Brexit has always never been hard enough; after the horrific miscalculation of the Labour party in its decision to oppose Theresa May’s deals, they have pushed for an ever more aggressive split.

They see no benefit from a pick-and-choose arrangement which, amusingly, the EU now seems open to; a genuinely bespoke arrangement that would allow the UK to benefit from the ‘good bits’ like the Horizon research programme, whilst having the freedom to branch out where possible. Instead, they’d now rather have the relationship between the UK and our closest trading partner descend into total acrimony with a bill to rip up the protocol in its entirety. 

Ideology has its place in politics, and rightly so. But Britain’s post-Brexit relationship should not be dictated by the internal politics of the Tory party and the ever-hardening views of a minority of MPs.