UK is ‘trapped in a recurring cycle of silly behaviour’ on Brexit, EU commissioner says

Top EU official suggests Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg might want to 'shut up and let Prime Minister May get on with her work'

Britain is “trapped in a recurring cycle of silly behaviour” over Brexit and risks leaving the EU without an agreement on trade, one of the bloc’s top commissioners has warned.

Phil Hogan lambasted the “absurdist politics” dominating Westminster and suggested that Brexiteers Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg might want to “shut up and let Prime Minister May get on with her work”.

Speaking in County Wexford in Ireland, the member of the EU executive also warned: “If the UK attitude is Chequers and only Chequers, there will be no agreement before March next year on the future trade relationship.”

Phil Hogan, the EU’s agriculture commissioner (Reuters)

The British government has suggested that the choice in talks is now between the Chequers trade proposal and no-deal.

“More than two years after the referendum, the UK remains in a pickle. And by pickle, I mean that the UK is trapped in a recurring cycle of silly behaviour,” he told an audience at the Kennedy Summer School.

“Several times Prime Minister May has courageously dragged the UK factions into some sort of line of battle and turned it to face Brussels. Because, after all, it is with Brussels that the UK’s exit deal must be done.

“But the factions in her own party will have none of it. Mr Johnson and Mr Rees-Mogg say, in effect, ‘prime minister, you must negotiate Brexit with us’.”

The UK remains in a pickle. And by pickle, I mean that the UK is trapped in a recurring cycle of silly behaviour

Phil Hogan, EU commissioner

Mr Hogan, who is Ireland’s member of the EU executive, continued: “This is leading to absurdist politics. Michel Barnier, on behalf of the EU, has repeatedly said that the UK cannot cherry-pick parts of the internal market by wanting a market for goods but not services, and that the UK cannot split the EU’s four freedoms. This is the clear and unequivocal message of the EU 27.

“So what is the reaction of Mr Johnson and Mr Rees-Mogg? It is certainly not to shut up and let Prime Minister May get on with her work.

“But what they also don’t do, because constructive criticism is not a concept they recognise, is offer some alternative suggestions. They see their task as pouring negativism on all suggestions apart from a clean break from the dreaded bureaucrats of Brussels. So we are stuck – at least publicly – where we were before the summer.”

Mr Hogan, whose brief controls the European Commission’s agricultural policies, has made a series of interventions about Brexit in recent months – perhaps serving as an attack-dog for the Commission.

Demonstrating an apparent knack for a soundbite, in June he suggested, “the tide is finally starting to go out on the high priests of Brexit” – accusing politicians such as Nigel Farage and Michael Gove of dealing in “deception and lies”.

In April, he also rubbished Theresa May’s plan for a “global Britain”, warning that there are “stubborn facts that overshadow a rosy picture” painted by the prime minister.

Mr Hogan is one of 28 European commissioners – who are the equivalent of government ministers and effectively make up the EU’s executive branch.

His latest intervention comes days after chief negotiator Mr Barnier told MPs on the Commons Exiting the European Union Committee that the Chequers proposal drawn up by the British cabinet “does not seem workable to us, basically”.

Negotiators have begun to meet on a more intense basis since the summer, but there has been little public word of progress.