{"id":863308,"date":"2022-10-31T10:32:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-31T10:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/?p=1626987"},"modified":"2022-10-31T10:32:00","modified_gmt":"2022-10-31T10:32:00","slug":"the-secretive-tory-faction-pushing-hardline-brexit-policy-in-rishi-sunaks-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/10\/31\/the-secretive-tory-faction-pushing-hardline-brexit-policy-in-rishi-sunaks-government\/","title":{"rendered":"The secretive Tory faction pushing hardline Brexit policy in Rishi Sunak\u2019s government"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Condemnation followed UK prime minister Rishi Sunak’s reinstatement<\/a> of Suella Braverman as home secretary despite her multiple infringements of the ministerial code. Then there’s her enthusiasm<\/a> to forcibly send refugees to Rwanda against a European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruling<\/a>. There’s also her determination<\/a> to block migrant labour, though she skirts around the real problem in industries such as agriculture and hospitality i.e. notoriously low pay. And there’s the matter of asylum seekers forced into insanitary holding camps<\/a>, only to succumb to diphtheria and other diseases that will likely lead to legal action and compensation claims.<\/p>\n

Yet Braverman’s re-appointment might be explained by her membership<\/a> of a secretive<\/a> Tory faction known as the European Research Group (ERG). Braverman is also<\/a> a former ERG chair. Moreover, several of Braverman’s cabinet colleagues<\/a> are ERG members<\/a>: James Cleverly, Penny Mordaunt, Michael Gove, Th\u00e9r\u00e8se Coffey, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, and Chris Heaton-Harris. Long time ERG member Steve Baker remains<\/a> minister of state for northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

The ERG has been operational since 1994 and there are around 118 MPs who are or were members. It may be wrong to suggest Sunak is a prisoner to this extreme group, however, for he too is a Brexit enthusiast<\/a>. And it appears<\/a> he is, or was, an ERG member.<\/p>\n

Who funds the ERG?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The ERG’s mission is to ensure their hardline version<\/a> of Brexit remains government policy. Yet the consequences of that approach have been patently catastrophic<\/a>, dramatically affecting UK trade with our nearest neighbours in the EU, and in turn affecting prices of imports.<\/p>\n

So who funds the ERG? Back in 2017, openDemocracy<\/em> published<\/a> evidence that the group received over a quarter of a million pounds from MPs, who claimed that money via their official expenses. In other words, funding for this secretive and unaccountable group came from taxpayers’ money.<\/p>\n

Also, Baker – who went on to become minister in the Department for Exiting the EU (DExEU) – accepted a donation<\/a> for the ERG from the Constitutional Research Council (CRC). The CRC channelled \u00a3435k of \u2018dark money\u2019 to the Democratic Unionist Party (Northern Ireland) to buy Brexit advertising across the UK.<\/p>\n

ERG and Brexit
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Meanwhile, the ERG’s Brexit agenda is facing renewed criticism from mainstream media.<\/p>\n

A Financial<\/em> Times<\/em> (FT) article demonstrates<\/a> that since the EU referendum, prices of goods, particularly food, have massively risen. Thanks to Brexit, there’s also been a reduction in UK investment. Not forgetting the huge lorry queues<\/a> at ports; labour shortages<\/a> in several industry sectors, due in part to bans on migrant labour from the EU; and the ending<\/a> of the right of UK citizens to live, work, and study anywhere in the EU.<\/p>\n

Then there’s the Northern Ireland Protocol<\/a>, which claims to guarantee peace in the province via the Good Friday Agreement<\/a>. The Northern Ireland Protocol Bill<\/a>, which will provide the legal means for Westminster to unilaterally amend the Protocol, has the full backing<\/a> of ERG’s legal experts. Moreover, Sunak has promised<\/a> the ERG that the Parliament Act will be used to tear up the Protocol, which could see UK-EU relations damaged further.<\/p>\n

The “Brexit effect”<\/strong><\/h2>\n

An FT<\/em> video on the “Brexit effect” looks at the repercussions from a business point of view:<\/p>\n