Chief Secretary to the Treasury Lizz Truss MP has backed a No Deal Brexit over a long extension to the Article 50 negotiations with the European Union — pushing Brexit day far into the future, and possibly preparing the way for its ultimate cancellation — indicating she does not believe the more lurid scare stories peddled by Project Fear.
Asked if she would prefer No Deal to an extension of Article 50 — presumably the very long extension favoured by the EU, rather than the short one Theresa May has sought to attempt to pass her Withdrawal Agreement with the bloc for a third time — Truss told The Sun, “God yes. No extension.”
As a former Remain campaigner serving under Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip ‘Remainer Phil’ Hammond, widely regarded as one of the key players within Cabinet pushing for Brexit to be watered down and for No Deal to be taken off the table, Truss’s stance is perhaps surprising — although it is in line with her previous statements that officially re-opening the Brexit debate would lead to a “massive crisis”.
“I think it would be an absolute disaster if we had a second referendum after people voted so clearly to leave the European Union,” she told the BBC at the beginning of March.
“There will be a massive crisis in this nation, and it would be terrible for business. It would leave us continuing in this limbo period.”
.@trussliz – The proponent of enlightenment within the @Conservatives
“It’s never been easier to get a meal, to get a ride, to get a job but you’d think the country was about to be invaded by a plague of locusts”@ASI @sapinker pic.twitter.com/whsJUkNVPY
— Stephen Canning (@EssexCanning) March 21, 2019
Unlike Chancellor Hammond, who has frequently pushed the narrative that a No Deal exit from the European Union would be a catastrophe, Truss told The Sun: “I don’t believe the plague of locusts stuff.”
The “plague of locusts stuff” the Norfolk MP was referring to has included claims that No Deal would lead to Britain running out of Mars bars, sandwiches, medicine of various kinds, and even drinking water.
Other claims advanced in aid of browbeating MPs and voters who favour No Deal over Mrs May’s deal — or no Brexit, as she is threatening with increasing regularity — have included suggestions that the country could become vulnerable to a super-gonorrhoea epidemic and even falling space debris.
Govt Whistleblower: UK Prepared for ‘No Deal’ Brexit, Scare Stories ‘Absolutely Untrue’ https://t.co/FHVSSJBnua
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) December 29, 2018
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