Angela Merkel to use final months in charge to ‘damage’ UK in ‘present to EU empire’
Adrian Hill issued his warning the day before the German Chancellor’s scheduled meeting with Boris Johnson at Chequers. And he fears Mrs Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron are planning to step up the pressure in a bid to force Britain to accept EU rules when it comes to food standards in a move he fears would badly undermine International Trade Secretary Liz Truss as she tries to seal deals with countries including the USA.
Mr Hill, a former officer in the Royal Engineers who among other diplomatic posts worked as a member of the Channel Tunnel team at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the COBRA Committee of the Cabinet Office, was speaking the day after the UK and the EU agreed a three-month extension to the grace period for chilled meats entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain, with the bloc also agreeing to alter EU legislation to guarantee an undisrupted flow of medicines into Northern Ireland.
He urged Mr Johnson not to be taken in, explaining: “I think the only thing they understand is no exports so a trade boycott talks better than diplomats.
“Boris is a softie at heart, he won’t stand up to Mutti.
With respect to the EU’s motives, he added: “They need desperately to damage us because if they can’t, their whole card house will collapse.”
As such he speculated that Mrs Merkel was adopting a hardline stance towards Britain as a “retirement present to her EU empire”.
Referring to Germany’s 14-day quarantine requirement for UK visitors, he said: “She’s already had a go at blocking sunny holidays!
“If she and Macron can force us back into the EU food rules they’ve screwed us – because there’s no point in the Aussies or Kiwis or Canooks signing trade deals when food exports are the big attraction. No point for the Yanks either.
“David Frost understands that and I’m sure Boris does. They will try and undermine both.”
Mr Hill added: “Boris should ask Merkel just how does he justify cruising past Sevastopol and keeping troops in the Baltics while France and Germany invest US$500 millions each every year in Russia and Germany buys Russian gas and runs an export boom with China? It doesn’t add up!
“I’m all for the City forgetting Europe. Rishi has that one absolutely right.
“Boris just has to slug this out until she’s gone.”
A keen advocate of hitting the EU27 in the pocket, Mr Hill said: “Tell all your friends to join the boycott.
“No exports to the UK talks much louder than any diplomat pussyfooting.
“Mutti is the spider to whom Ursula and Selmayr report.
“She’s behind the attempt to annex Northern Ireland for the Republic.
“The Irish now realise they were taken for a ride but don’t know how to escape the EU – they’re trapped in the euro.”
He claimed: “She’s behind a lot of the SNP’s campaign to break up the UK.
“She’s even complained that we allowed too many people into Wembley Stadium for the England – Germany match as though that’s why Germany lost!”
Speaking after the extension was agreed yesterday, Brexit minister Lord Frost said: “This is a positive first step but we still need to agree a permanent solution – Northern Ireland is an integral part of the United Kingdom and its consumers should be able to enjoy products they have bought from Great Britain for years.
“This is a very clear sign that the Protocol has to be operated in a pragmatic and proportionate way.
“The chilled meats issue is only one of a very large number of problems with the way the Protocol is currently operating, and solutions need to be found with the EU to ensure it delivers on its original aims: to protect the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement, safeguard Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom, and protect the EU’s single market for goods. We look to work energetically with the EU to do so.”
Ciaran McGrath
source:express.co.uk