David Frost: EU sometimes appear to 'not want' UK success

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The UK voted to leave the European Union by a slim margin of 52 percent to 48 percent during the historic referendum of June 2016. But the result left millions of Remainers supporters furious, who despite the result, have held out desperate hope they can somehow reverse the result and see the UK one day rejoin the EU. They have even made several attempts to blame Brexit for the recent HGV drover shortage and fuel crisis sweeping throughout the country.

But during a speech in Lisbon on Tuesday, the UK’s Brexit minister brilliant tore down Remainer theories with his latest summary of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.

Lord Frost insisted the fundemanel element of Brexit is about “democracy”.

He explained: “That’s why I don’t see anything wrong with Brexit being described as populist policy.

“If populism means doing what people want, challenging a technocratic consensus, then I’m all for it.

“To suggest there is something wrong in people deciding things for themselves is somewhat disreputable, maybe even disrespectful, to the British people in our democracy.

“I personally will argue as strongly as I can see that free market capitalism, low taxes, free speech and the maximum possible amount of economic and political freedom for individuals are the best choices we could make as a country.

“But now we have to win those arguments and persuade people, not just write them into a treaty or into a convention and expect people to put up with them.”

During his keynote speech in Lisbon, Lord Frost once again warned Britain is ready to trigger Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol in order to safeguard the peace process in the country.

He said the UK is prepared to trigger the mechanism – which allows either side to override large parts of the agreement – if fundamental changes are not made to it.

The Brexit minister warned: “It is this Government, the UK Government, that governs Northern Ireland as it does the rest of the UK.

“Northern Ireland is not EU territory. It is our responsibility to safeguard peace and prosperity and that may include using Article 16 if necessary.

“We would not go down this route gratuitously or with any particular pleasure but it is our fundamental responsibility to safeguard peace and prosperity in Northern Ireland and that is why we cannot rest until this situation is addressed.”

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Lord Frost is proposing a number of changes, including replacing the role of the European Court of Justice in policing the protocol with a system of international arbitration.

He insisted significant alterations to the Protocol are essential because the way it is working had “shredded” the balance between unionist and nationalist communities in Northern Ireland.

The Brexit minister said: “We now face a very serious situation. The protocol is not working. It has completely lost consent in one community in Northern Ireland.

“It is not doing the thing it was set up to do – protect the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. In fact, it is doing the opposite. It has to change.

“The fundamental difficulty is that we are being asked to run a full-scale external boundary of the EU through the centre of our country, to apply EU law without consent in part of it, and to have any dispute on these arrangements settled in the court of one of the parties.

“The way this is happening is disrupting ordinary lives, damaging large and small businesses, and causing serious turbulence to the institutions of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement within Northern Ireland.”

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