Brexit has become a major issue in a crucial by-election which could still decide Rishi Sunak’s fate as Prime Minister and Tory leader.
Reform UK Wellingborough candidate Ben Habib has reacted with fury to revelations that the Prime Minister is proposing to tie Britain into a new deal with the EU which would see the whole of the UK effectively having to follow Brussels rules.
Mr Habib, a former Brexit Party MEP, has described Wellingborough as “a referendum on Rishi Sunak” and said that the proposal to sort out the Northern Ireland crisis and get Stormont to reopen was a “Brexit betrayal.” It comes as his party appears to be closing on the Tories in the national polls.
Mr Habib, who is also a former Tory donor, was reacting to an analysis from the pro-Brexit Brudges group on the Prime Minister’s proposed deal with the EU and Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in Northern Ireland.
He said: “The Bruges Group analysis is spot on. The NI Protocol is working as planned and as soon as many of us predicted. A grappling hook into the flesh of the United Kingdom, preventing us from being able to leave the EU and preventing us from doing what’s right for the UK.
“Putting a border between Great Britain and Northern Ireland was the biggest act of constitutional self harm since we joined the EU.”
Mr Habib has been a strong critic of the Windsor Framework agreement that the Prime Minister signed this year and claimed his worst fears are now being realised.
He went on: “Sunak lied when he said the Windsor Framework was a solution to the Protocol. The opposite is true. It embedded the Protocol.
“Our political class as ever acting against the country’s interest in favour of their global mates. The DUP must hold firm and not give into the bullying and bribery of the government to return to Stormont.”
Wellingborough voted almost two-thirds in favour of Brexit in 2016 and was represented by Brexiteer Tory MP Peter Bone who had to quit after a recall petition was successful following his suspension from Parliament.
Bone’s partner Helen Harrison, also a Brexit campaigner, is now the Conservative candidate to try to hold on to the seat.
The Bruge Group, set up after Margaret Thatcher’s Bruges speech criticising the centralisation of the EU, has objected to Mr Sunak being willing to sacrifice Brexit freedoms to get the Northern Ireland Stormont Assembly to reopen.
He has suggested that new laws are screened to ensure they do not create trade barriers in the Irish Sea with Northern Ireland still trapped in the EU’s single market.
This means that the whole of the UK could be tied to EU rules.
The DUP walked out of the Belfast Assembly in 2022 in protest over the Northern Ireland protocol and barriers being created between Northern Ireland and mainland Britain.
Senior Tory Brexiteers have also criticised the Government plans.
Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former business secretary, said: “This means we will not diverge at all, and we will have ended up with Theresa May’s Chequers deal in all but name.
“I voted against the Windsor Framework because it subordinates part of the UK to the EU. This mechanism would restore part of the EU hegemony over us.”
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, a former Tory leader, added that the plan was “a real problem”.
He added: “The Windsor framework is the back door to the EU holding on to the UK and stopping us diverging. It should be replaced.”
Former Brexit Minister David Jones said: “The UK is pursuing a global trading stance and EU standards are increasingly irrelevant. Clinging to the CE mark is extremely shortsighted.”
Downing Street has described the claims as “speculation”.
