Shame we didn’t see this plastered on the side of a bus, really. David Davis, the Tory MP for Goole and once the top negotiator for the UK’s departure from the EU, hasn’t exactly given a ringing endorsement of Brexit this morning.
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Speaking with The Telegraph, he was pressed on the appointment of Priti Patel as the Shadow Foreign Secretary. She’s one of the more staunch Brexiteers in the Conservative Party, and Mr. Davis told the publication that he sees her as a ‘very clear public thinker’.
Kemi Badenoch stormed to victory in the Tory leadership race earlier this month, defeating the challenge of Robert Jenrick. Bids from James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat also fell by the wayside. Her shadow cabinet has recycled some familiar faces, including Patel’s.
One part of her brief, Davis has pointed out, will be responding to Keir Starmer and his mission to realign the UK with the EU. Though the PM has ruled out reversing Brexit in any way, shape, or form, he is currently trying to establish a set of agreements with individual nations.
Whether this is the right approach or not remains to be seen. However, David Davis very much led Britain out of the European Union in the years after the referendum result. So it may come as something of a shock to hear him describe closer ties with Europe as ‘common sense’.
Though he accepts there will be a series of ‘very important trade-offs’, Davis went on to describe the logic of doing business with a ‘nearby trading partner’ in the wake of the US Election result this week. Well, we hate to say we told you so…
“It’ll be interesting to see how Starmer delivers on his attempted closer arrangements with Europe. In one measure, closer arrangements with Europe are just common sense, they are a nearby trading partner. But the trade-offs they have to agree are very important.” | David Davis
