Brexit took Cameron and May ahead, but boosted Johnson. He is the monster of British politics that cannot be mentioned, the unmentionable. The word has not figured in Liz Truss’s first interventions, as if it were something that did not exist, and was not responsible for the decline in exports and productivity, supply problems and lack of manpower. As if it didn’t contribute to inflation. When the new prime minister talks about challenges, she does so only about Ukraine and the energy crisis.
As Minister of Foreign Affairs, she tightened the rope to the maximum with the European Union and prepared the ground to invoke article 16 of the Brexit agreements and suspend customs controls on products from the rest of Great Britain, alleging that such a practice harmed economically to the province, went against the national sovereignty of the United Kingdom and endangered the Good Friday pacts (arguments all very questionable, because the majority of the population does not see any problem in their continuation). She also sided with those in favor of unilaterally breaking commitments with Brussels, not caring what it would mean for the country’s international reputation.
The Tory leader has deep ideological convictions regarding the role of the state, but in the past she has not hesitated to switch sides and ideas quite naturally (from liberal to Tory, from Republican to monarchist, from anti-Brexit to pro-Brexit). And as soon as she came to power she has decided, against her principles, to intervene in the markets to put a cap on gas and electricity prices. Otherwise she would have lasted less than a meringue at the door of a school. Will it do something similar with respect to Europe?
He is studying the possibility of a trip to the Republic of Ireland to meet Taoiseach Michéal Martin, and people in his circle indicate that he would like to “make a new attempt to see if a compromise with Brussels is possible on the subject of the Ireland Protocol of North” (fundamental part of the Brexit agreements). Ulster Unionists have already expressed the fear that he will leave them stranded, as did Johnson, who swore to them that there would be no customs checks and no North Sea border.)
But, although she would like conciliation and pragmatism, Truss has a problem: the sector of the party that has supported her and the conservative militants who have voted for her are staunch Eurosceptics who do not want any kind of compromise, hostile to the European project, supporters of to make a bonfire with all the EU regulations that remain in force and to end the subordination to the European Court of Human Rights, which puts obstacles to the sending of immigrants to Rwanda.
On the gold side, it needs a good relationship with Washington and a favorable trade agreement with the United States. But President Biden has already warned him to forget about it if he breaks the Brexit deals. In foreign policy, it is not easy either.
