Former Brexit minister Lord David Frost has awarded the government only a “B+” in seizing the “benefits” of life outside the EU – saying ministers must now do more to deliver.
The man who negotiated Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal, who quit the cabinet in December, marked his own delivery of an agreement as worthy of an “A– ”. But he acknowledged the public wanted to see more “pay off”.
Lord Frost told LBC: “What are we doing to take advantage of Brexit? There’s a lot more been done – but there is a lot more we could be doing … so that some of the benefits can be visible and pay off.”
The Tory peer claimed that “the vaccine roll-out, leading on Ukraine and restoring democracy to the country” could all be credited to Brexit.
Lord Frost added: “I’d like to see us doing more on planning reform, procurement reform, restoring flexible labour markets, reducing tariffs, going harder on free trade deals – all these sorts of things.”
The minister for Brexit opportunities Jacob Rees-Mogg – tasked with cutting red tape and delivering tangible gains from the UK’s withdrawal – has issued a plea to readers of The Sun to help identify possible benefits.
Asked about existing Brexit benefits, Lord Frost ranked “restoring democracy to the country” as the most important. “In many EU countries you can’t decide everything through elections. In this country, we now can,” he told LBC.
He also insisted it was “not realistic” for the protocol that he negotiated as part of the Brexit withdrawal agreement, which imposes new checks on good moving between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, to last forever.
“We are going to have serious difficulties in the political situation in Northern Ireland after the elections,” he said on the looming vote in the province on 5 May.
He added: “It is obvious that the protocol as it currently stands cannot survive. It must be renegotiated or the government must act unilaterally.”
The Brexit hardliner said: “I simply don’t understand why the EU will not renegotiated and move on to a more collaborative relationship.”
He claimed the EU had lost the “moral basis” to maintain the protocol with its own threat to trigger suspension of protocol over vaccines in January 2021.
Mr Johnson’s government has resisted recent pressure from hardliner Brexiteers to trigger Article 16 and unilaterally suspend parts of the protocol, a move which could spark a trade war with Brussels.
But the prime minister has insisted the option remains on the table.
Mr Johnson hinted at disagreement with German chancellor Olaf Scholz on the issue last week, joking about an “almost seamless harmony” between the two countries on most issues.
Foreign secretary Liz Truss took over Lord Frost’s role as UK negotiator on the ongoing protocol row in December, but has played down threats to trigger Article 16.
Meanwhile, Lord Frost said he did not think one fixed penalty notice “is itself grounds for resignation” – backing Mr Johnson to lead the Tory party into the next election.
But the Tory peer said the PM had to come to Commons to correct his comments on Partygate.
“The prime minister is on record saying to parliament that all the rules were observed and there were no parties – that’s obviously not the case.”
