Boris Johnson breaks ranks with Brexit ‘vassal state’ warning

Boris Johnson has insisted Britain must not become a “vassal state” of the European Union by being forced to adopt all its regulations, before a crucial cabinet meeting this week on how the government will conduct Brexit talks.

The cabinet is due to meet on Tuesday for the first substantive discussion of the “end state” the government should aim for in the next stage of negotiations, with Theresa May insisting she “would not be derailed” from delivering Brexit.

In a pair of defiant articles in The Sunday Telegraph and Sunday Express newspapers, after her defeat this week in the House of Commons over parliamentary scrutiny of a final Brexit deal, the prime minister said: “Amid all the noise, we are getting on with the job. In the face of those who want to talk Britain down, we are securing the best and most ambitious Brexit deal for our whole United Kingdom.”

She claimed personal credit for securing a deal with the EU27 allowing talks to progress to the next stage – as confirmed in Brussels on Friday.

But with the cabinet divided over how closely Britain should continue to align with EU rules after a transition period of around two years is over, Johnson broke ranks to insist the government must retain the freedom to set its own laws.

“What we need to do is something new and ambitious, which allows zero tariffs and frictionless trade but still gives us that important freedom to decide our own regulatory framework, our own laws and do things in a distinctive way in the future,” he told The Sunday Times.