Lord Frost accuses ministers of treating Brexit as an ‘awkward embarrassment’ to be forgotten about as he urges the government to stand up to ‘pro-EU fanatics’

• Frost said the government is not doing enough to stand up to ‘pro-EU fanatics’

Lord Frost has accused ministers of treating Brexit as an ‘awkward embarrassment’ to be forgotten about quickly.

The former Cabinet minister said the government is not doing enough to stand up to ‘pro-EU fanatics’ who see Britain’s departure from Europe as the cause of every problem facing the country.

He claimed politicians and the civil service are trying to get the system back to what it was before 2016, and warned the Tory Party may not get another chance to take advantage of voters’ desire for change.

In a speech setting out an ‘action plan to rebuild Britain’, he suggested there should be a referendum on Rishi Sunak’s deal on Northern Ireland – while praising Boris Johnson’s firmness on Brexit.

Speaking at the Legatum Institute think-tank about the fight for conservative values across the West yesterday, the former Brexit negotiator said: ‘Our debate is bedevilled by a small number of unreconciled pro-EU fanatics who portray every difficulty we face as a consequence of Brexit regardless of the facts.

The former Cabinet minister said the government is not doing enough to stand up to ‘pro-EU fanatics’ who see Britain’s departure from Europe as the cause of every problem facing the country

In a speech setting out an ‘action plan to rebuild Britain’, he suggested there should be a referendum on Rishi Sunak’s deal on Northern Ireland – while praising Boris Johnson’s firmness on Brexit

‘It is also true the government is doing little to rebut these criticisms of Brexit, and gives the impression of regarding the whole thing as an awkward embarrassment to be moved on from rapidly.’ He said the vote to leave the EU was the ‘first stage in getting a grip on our problems’ but there are many people ‘who oppose leaving the EU and don’t like giving voters a say’.

‘The wish in much of Britain’s political class is to get back to doing politics like it was before 2016, just outside of the EU rather than in it.

‘A politics in which changing anything significant seems to be beyond government capacity and in which lobby groups, the well-connected and rich all have a decisive stake,’ he added.

He warned this would lead to politics becoming disconnected from the voters who wanted change, as had happened when ‘old politics’ struck in 2017 and 2018.

After the 2019 election the government did ‘deliver our national independence’ but now ‘old politics is messing it up again’, the Tory peer said. ‘And the Conservative party may not, on current polling will not, get a third chance,’ he warned.

In his manifesto to put the country on a different path and give people more freedom, Lord Frost said taxes and public spending should be reduced, benefits frozen, Net Zero targets postponed, planning reforms introduced to build millions more houses and most tariffs abolished to boost free trade.

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