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For Michael Gove and Boris Johnson, Brexit was never meant to be about leaving the EU.
Thread. (1/x)
Thread. (1/x)
Back in the mid-90s, when Euroscepticism first started to take over the Tory party, Bill Cash introduced an EU referendum bill in parliament but he stressed it "was not about whether the UK should be in or out". (2/x)
At the time, Michael Gove was a newspaper columnist and used Bill Cash's referendum bill as an opportunity to float the idea of a full withdrawal from the EU in an article subtitled "British withdrawal from the EU need not be suicidal". (3/x) 
Gove's actual argument was that while it was in Britain's interests to remain in the EU, we would get a better deal from the other members if they thought we might leave and that "flirting" with an exit would increase our influence. (4/x)
Another five years later, in 2001, the Conservative party ran their most explicitly Eurosceptic General Election campaign, but even then William Hague said, "I can't possibly see that it would be in the interests of this country to leave the European Union". (5/x)
By 2010, the Conservatives were finally back in power, with Gove now in the Cabinet. In 2012, he became the first Cabinet minister to say he would support a withdrawal from the EU. (6/x)
Gove was in fact just putting the argument from his 1996 column into practice, thinking that threatening to leave would force the EU to renegotiate. (7/x) newstatesman.com/blogs/politics…
Within months, this approach became official government policy, with Cameron announcing an in/out referendum and demanding a new negotiation with the EU. (8/x) bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…
In the 2015 General Election campaign, Cameron said "plan B is to hold a referendum", but he had no plan for what to do if he lost. (9/x)
Gove was unsatisfied with the results of Cameron's negotiation, so decided to double down and campaign for a vote to Leave, but in fact he was just pursuing the same failed strategy, thinking that a vote for Brexit would show the EU we were serious. (10/x)
Gove's infamous "we hold all the cards" comments have got a lot of attention, but in the same speech he also says that nothing would change for 5 years, and that we wouldn't need to invoke Article 50. (11/x)
Boris Johnson's emphasis on asking people to vote Leave so that the EU would "listen" is also revealing of his and Gove's thinking. (12/x) telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopic…
So the threats have now been escalated from:
- Hold an in/out referendum
- Campaign to Leave
- Invoke Article 50
- No deal is better than a bad deal
- Reject the withdrawal agreement
And where has Gove's grand strategy led us? (13/x)
- Hold an in/out referendum
- Campaign to Leave
- Invoke Article 50
- No deal is better than a bad deal
- Reject the withdrawal agreement
And where has Gove's grand strategy led us? (13/x)
The simple truth is that the strategy was mistaken from the outset. The threat of leaving was never a real source of leverage. It's time Gove and others admitted that their plan has failed miserably. (14/14)
