After Brexit, can Boris Johnson make Britain greater?
- With a decisive election victory under his belt, Boris Johnson has a mandate to push his own brand of UK foreign policy
With the election decisively won, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s in-tray of promises on which he now needs to deliver is overflowing, the divisive Brexit issue his top priority.
But with a huge majority in parliament, he now has a mandate to push his withdrawal plan through the House of Commons, possibly as early as Friday, to “get Brexit done” by January 31.
What comes next, the detailed negotiations of the future UK trading relationship with the European Union, its nearest and largest trading partner, may prove a little trickier.
Johnson has imposed a deadline of the end of 2020, but already there are suggestions from senior figures in Brussels they might ask for an extension, meaning that the wrangling is far from over.
As Financial Times commentator Gideon Rachman put it: “He must turn the negotiation of a new trade deal with the EU, however protracted, into a boring, bureaucratic process that mostly stays out of the headlines. That will help suck some of the poison out of Britain’s political system and its relationship with the EU”.
But what about the rest of the world? How will the prime minister deliver on his promise of a dynamic, global Britain. What will his promise of complete overhaul of the country’s security, defence and foreign policy look like?