Ardent Remainers ‘heartbroken’ by Brexit sparks mutiny fears
Boris Johnson discusses partygate and Brexit three years on
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Ardent Remainer and former EU Commissioner Lord Mandelson participated in a “secret” meeting held at the Ditchley Park retreat in Oxfordshire last week, sparking fears of renewed plots to cancel Brexit and allow the UK to sign a closer partnership with the EU.
A Conservative MP told The Times that the “secret conference is a sign they are on manoeuvres”.
Remainers present in the room also included Labour MP and anti-Brexit David Lammy as well as Sir Tom Scholar, David Cameron’s Europe adviser.
Lord Hill, also a former EU Commissioner and present in the room, famously said he was “heartbroken” by the Brexit vote in 2016.
The UK’s former chief Brexit negotiator Lord Frost has urged the Government to “fully and enthusiastically embrace the advantages of Brexit” as he characterised the meeting as a plot to undermine the agreement.
He claimed the meeting was “a further piece of evidence that many in our political and business establishment want to unravel the deals we did to exit the EU in 2020 and to stay shadowing the EU instead”.
He told the Daily Mail: “That’s why so many of those responsible for Theresa May’s failed backstop deal were there, while I and those who actually delivered the Brexit agreements were not.”
It was originally reported by The Observer that Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove – who co-led the Vote Leave campaign in 2016 – was in attendance for the discussions, alongside senior members of Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s shadow cabinet.
Other Brexiteers like Lord Lamont, Lord Howard and Lord Bridges are also believed to have been present in the room.
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Lord Frost continued: “Brexit doesn’t need ‘fixing’. It needs this Conservative Government, elected with a huge mandate on a Brexit programme, to fully and enthusiastically embrace its advantages instead of leaving the field to those who never wanted it in the first place. I and millions of others want the Government to get on with that instead of raising taxes, deterring investment and pushing public spending to its highest level for 70 years.”
The significance of the event was played down by sources with knowledge of the meeting.
It is understood Mr Gove attended the meeting because he is a governor at Ditchley Park. He no longer has any involvement in setting Brexit policy in his role as Levelling Up Secretary.
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A Labour source said: “This was a bog standard Ditchley Park conference. Their events are always cross-party.”
Another source familiar with the event said it was a “quite dull conference” on foreign affairs.
But another source told The Times that discussions about trading rules with the EU were held.
Lord Mandelson was “vocal in support of Britain negotiating new terms to ‘smooth out the friction’ in the current arrangements”, they reported.
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