Former diplomat says both May and Johnson’s Brexit blueprints are ‘bullsh*t’
Sir Ivan Rogers. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/Press Association. - Credit: Archant
Theresa May's 'fantasy island' view of Brexit is 'plausible bullsh*t', the UK's former ambassador to the EU has claimed.
Sir Ivan Rogers said there had been 'culpable naivety' in the negotiations, and neither Theresa May nor Boris Johnson's plans had any chance of agreement by Brussels.
In a speech in Cambridge, the ex-diplomat, who quit last year, said there had been no plan for Brexit but plenty of 'plausible bullsh*t' instead.
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Sir Ivan said the 'culpable naivety' had happened on an almost daily basis over the last two years as the UK makes demands that Brussels will not accept.
He also said that both the Chequers plan and a Canada-style deal being proposed by Boris Johnson and the European Research Group had 'precisely zero' chance of being agreed by the EU.
MORE: We've come so far - now for the big pushHe said: 'Nearly two and a half years on from the referendum, we are, both on the EU deal, and on other post Brexit trade deals, still lost in campaign mode on fantasy island.
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'But the time for these fantasies is long past.'
He added: 'We needed seriously to work through precisely how a Brexit process could be made to work before launching it.'
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Sir Ivan branded Johnson's so-called Canada plus plus proposals as 'fiction' because they are 'not the pluses anyone else will agree'.
'The Johnsonian Canada plus plus is as big a pipe dream as Chequers,' he said.
'In some respects, rather bigger.'
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