Boris Johnson has received the backing of prominent Tory Leavers ahead of showdown talks with Theresa May for insisting Britain should not pay for access to the European market after Brexit.
The Foreign Secretary is at the United Nations in New York, where he is expected to meet the Prime Minister later this week amid recriminations over his blueprint for a so-called “hard” Brexit.
Mr Johnson’s 4,000-word essay, which has led to calls for his sacking, exposed Tory divisions over Brexit ahead of Mrs May’s expected offer of a compromise with Brussels in a Friday speech in Florence, Italy.
Speculation has been mounting that the PM will offer to pay tens of billions of pounds to the EU during a two to three-year transition deal after the UK’s formal exit in 2019 in order to break the deadlock in negotiations.
But Mr Johnson insisted that Britain should make no payments for access to the European single market after Brexit in an article widely interpreted as the first shot in a leadership bid.
Although the Foreign Secretary, who is also expected to attend Mrs May’s Wednesday address to the UN General Assembly, acknowledged the UK must “settle our accounts”, he made no mention of a transition deal.
Prominent Tory Brexiteer John Redwood supported Mr Johnson and said there was no legal reason to continue paying money to the EU after Brexit.
He accused the Treasury of briefing that the UK would be prepared to continue paying into Brussels’ coffers.
“Many of us don’t think there is any moral or political or legal reason to go on paying them once we have left. Indeed, I think it would be illegal to go on paying them once we have left,” he said.
(PA graphic)
The former cabinet minister also told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme it was “much better not to have a transition period”.
Although he stopped short of blaming Chancellor Philip Hammond personally, Mr Redwood said there had been “clear briefing out of the Treasury” that was “not in line with Government policy”.
He said: “All the time there is briefing coming out of the Treasury implying they would like to pay money to the EU, the EU will dig in and offer us absolutely nothing because they will say ‘this is good, they are prepared to offer us money even to have talks with us’. That would be absolutely absurd, to do that.”
John Redwood said the UK should stop paying the EU after Brexit (PA)
Fellow Tory Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg went further than Mr Johnson by insisting the UK should not agree to any “unnecessary divorce payout”.
The MP also backed Mr Johnson for reviving his widely criticised claim that up to £350 million a week will be freed up for public spending after Britain quits the EU, which left the Foreign Secretary embroiled in a messy spat with UK Statistics Authority chairman Sir David Norgrove.
Writing in the Telegraph, Mr Rees-Mogg said: “The positivity of Boris Johnson uses the settling of our account with the EU to boost public services.
Tory backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg insists there should be not be an “unnecessary divorce payout” (Yui Mok/PA)
“He wants to deliver on the promise to ensure better funding of the NHS by using the money we will save by leaving the EU, £10 billion, or nearly £200 million a week.
“That will come straight away as long as we do not agree some unnecessary divorce payout, and the next £150 million, which was implied if not formally pledged by the Leave campaign, can be found if we can grow our economy.”
Defence minister Tobias Ellwood acknowledged there was now “discord” in the Conservative Party over Brexit.
In a message on Twitter, Mr Ellwood, who served under Mr Johnson at the Foreign Office until June, said: “Party discord: Think many would agree we are not witnessing our finest hour, at a testing time when poise, purpose and unity are called for.”
At the weekend, Home Secretary Amber Rudd accused Mr Johnson of “backseat driving” and criticised him for releasing his opus at the time of the Parsons Green bomb attack.
But Mrs May’s de facto deputy Damian Green said Mr Johnson would not be sacked over his intervention and suggested “people should calm down” after a “weekend of excitement”.
A source close to Mr Johnson said the Foreign Secretary “accepts the idea of payments of our dues during the transition period but not payment for access afterwards”.