A prominent supporter of Brexit has called for a “long pause” over quitting the European Union - and even suggested “rethinking the decision altogether”.
Peter Oborne, a respected writer and Daily Mail columnist, argues the country should take up European Council President Donald Tusk’s offer of a year’s delay as he contends Brexit has “paralysed the system”.
His position is driven by the economic impact of the “flood” of companies quitting the country, the possible break-up of the United Kingdom and the “deceit” of the Leave campaign.
Oborne also hits out at fellow Brexiteers for the “succession of claims about leaving the EU that have turned out to be untrue”.
“I argue, as a Brexiteer, that we need to take a long deep breath. We need to swallow our pride, and think again. Maybe it means rethinking the Brexit decision altogether,” he writes.
Author of The Rise of Political Lying and ex-chief commentator at the Daily Telegraph, Oborne is noted as an independent thinker.
The high-profile Conservative raised eyebrows in 2014 and 2015 for repeatedly praising Ed Miliband as a “principled and courageous” politician, despite the then-Labour leader battling David Cameron for Number 10.
Oborne has frequently criticised Conservative government policy on the Middle East, particular around Saudi Arabia, but remained a passionate supporter of Brexit, often slamming the “hypocrisy” of EU leaders.
His apparent about-turn comes as Theresa May attempts to thrash out a compromise deal with Jeremy Corbyn, and will next week find out whether the remaining 27 EU countries will agree to a second extension to delay Brexit.
Without the delay or an agreement that can finally pass through parliament, the UK is set to leave the bloc on Friday without a deal.
In a piece for the Open Democracy website, Oborne writes that Brexit has “turned Britain into a laughing stock”.
He points to a series of companies that have made investment decisions following the referendum, including Nissan, Sony and Dyson, and expresses his sadness as “the trickle of companies announcing plans to leave Britain has turned into a flood”.
In a key line, he says: “If we are honest, we Brexiteers have to admit that the economic arguments for Brexit have been destroyed by a series of shattering blows.”
He also writes that Britain’s departure from the EU will be as “great a disaster for our country as the over-mighty unions were in the 1960s and 1970s”.
Arguing that investors and the hard left have been the most vocal in support of Brexit, he says: “When hedge-fund managers and the Communist Party see eye-to-eye on any question, it’s time to be concerned.”
He warns a “clumsily executed Brexit” will hit wages, jobs and public services and that there is “zero chance” of a “sensible Brexit” given the “pandemonium and hysteria at Westminster just now”.
Oborne thinks a Tory leadership contest, triggered after May announced she would stand down once a deal passes, adds to it being the “worse time to make the decision about how to leave Europe”.
He goes on to defend his position as a Brexiteer, arguing the EU is “not democratic”. He adds: “Part of me, therefore, still feels proud of Brexit. Well done Britain for challenging remote oligarchs based in Brussels.”
But he counters that the “bitter and angry debate” since has led him to conclude that “this is not just a simple problem of whether or not we are patriots”.
He says: “I readily accept that the European Union is a dysfunctional body beset by all manner of problems. But the lesson of the last two years is that we are much better off working inside the EU ... for reform and not as a hostile neighbour.”
He also fears that “like almost everybody else” the importance of the Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland has been “underestimated”: “We’ve all misunderstood the Irish question, even though it has loomed so large in our history for the last 500 years.”
After finally railing against the “false prospectus” offered by Brexiteers, he concludes the UK should “grab (Tusk’s) kindly offer of a year’s sabbatical”.
He adds: “Suspending Brexit will be greatly preferable to the alternative. How many important decisions in our own lives, too, have had to be taken on such a chilly and unexciting consideration? It’s time for a long pause.”