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Andy Gregory
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By all accounts, BBC veteran Andrew Neil did an excellent job on Friday of holding Boris Johnson to account where others have sometimes allowed his blizzard of pompous bluster to block out reality.
During his bid to become the prime minister that leads the UK through Brexit, he has based his strategy on a World Trade Organisation law called GATT 24, which he says could allow for continued free trade with the EU even in a no-deal Brexit.
But moments after the contender for prime minister castigated Andrew Neil to “get the detail right”, it became hideously apparent that he himself was only familiar with a quarter of a sentence of the law in question.
Paragraph 5C is not only part of the same sentence as 5B, it's also an essential condition for the latter to work. Read for yourself in the tweet below:
@OFOCBrexit @Femi_Sorry @BorisJohnson Paragraph 5C is crucial. A single sentence, all of 34 words long. That change… https://t.co/alq1dprAad— Jonathan Broadbent (@Jonathan Broadbent) 1563002503
When the journalist asked "How would you handle paragraph 5C?", Mr Johnson replied:
I would confide entirely in paragraph 5B.
Pressed further, he was asked:
How would you get round paragraph 5C? Do you know what’s in 5C?
To which he bluntly admitted:
No.
Instead of addressing the glaring block that the paragraph puts on his plan – that Britain and the EU would have to agree on a plan and schedule for a future trade agreement, he says:
Why this defeatism? Why this negativity?
His admission and state of complete denial would almost be comical, if it didn’t have such disastrous undertones and highlight the complete lack of expertise that has become the norm in today’s politics.
It’s hard to tell if this is worse than the time that former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab admitted he hadn’t even read the Good Friday Agreement.
People were angry and concerned in equal measure.
Ultimate proof, if you ever needed it, that @BorisJohnson hasn't got a clue how Brexit is going to work. He's not e… https://t.co/q2lOzQm8wt— Our Future, Our Choice (@Our Future, Our Choice) 1562959173
F*** me I'm trying to enjoy my holiday and Boris Johnson just admitted he LITERALLY HASN'T READ GATT 24, the articl… https://t.co/garTQq22IB— Femi (@Femi) 1562975620
@OFOCBrexit @BorisJohnson An absolute joke! Does Boris have any idea how the EU works? If he becomes PM, and God he… https://t.co/VAYI35hcaT— Doug Sanders (@Doug Sanders) 1562960628
@Femi_Sorry Pretty obvious here that his team have told him to repeat "paragraph 5B" as if he is some kid of legal… https://t.co/MmebSi8Yqi— Cornish Dazzler 〓〓 (@Cornish Dazzler 〓〓) 1563004583
One could be forgiven for thinking he hadn't prepared for the interview at all. He's apparently been doing it for years.
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