Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has played down cabinet minister Michael Gove’s attendance at a “secret conference” last week which Lord Frost—Britain’s former Brexit negotiator—claimed was evidence of a remainer plot to undermine the choice made by voters at the 2016 referendum.
Lord Mandelson, a former EU commissioner, was a speaker at one of the events, “How can we make Brexit work better with our neighbours in Europe?” at the Ditchley Park conference in Oxfordshire.
A Downing Street spokesman said on Monday the prime minister had not been aware in advance of the cross-party gathering.
During a visit to Oldham, a town in northern England, Sunak told broadcasters: “I was proud to vote for Brexit and now as Prime Minister I’m keen to make sure we deliver the benefits of it.”
He said Britain had “taken control” of its immigration system since Brexit and added: “Now what we want to do is make sure we drive growth in our economy by seizing the opportunities of Brexit to do things differently.”
Sunak refused to comment on whether Gove, the Levelling Up Secretary, should have attended the summit and said: “It is not about the meeting, I’m talking about what the government is doing, and that’s making sure we capitalise on the benefits of Brexit.”
Labour frontbenchers David Lammy and John Healey attended as did former Tory party leader Lord Michael Howard and ex-Conservative chancellor Lord Norman Lamont, according to the Observer, which first reported the meeting.
Frost Says ‘Brexit Doesn’t Need Fixing’
Frost said: “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.”Nigel Farage, the former leader of UKIP and the Brexit Party, said the Ditchley Park summit was evidence a “full sell-out of Brexit is under way”.
Conservative MP and former minister Sir John Redwood said: “Instead of talking of sell-out at private conferences the UK establishment needs to complete Brexit and use its freedoms.”
It comes amid reports Sunak is considering softening Britain’s stance on the Northern Ireland Protocol.
As part of the Brexit deal, the protocol created a trade border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.
The trading arrangement was agreed by the UK and EU in 2019 to ensure free movement of trade across the Irish land border after Brexit.
Becoming effective in 2021, the arrangements shifted customs and regulatory checks to the Irish Sea and created new red tape on the movement of goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, with trade in the region remaining subject to certain EU single market rules.
But in July 2022 the British government introduced legislation to scrap parts of the protocol.
The court dismissed the judicial review appeal on all three grounds including the claims that the Brexit trading arrangements breached the 1800 Acts of Union and the Northern Ireland Act 1998.
Former Labour MP and minister Kate Hoey, former Ulster Unionist Party leader Steve Aiken, former Brexit Party MEP Ben Habib, and Belfast-based loyalist Clifford Peeples had all challenged the protocol.
“A clear answer has been expressly provided by Parliament in relation to any conflict between the Protocol and the rights in the trade limb of Article VI [of the 1800 Acts of Union].”
