Frosty Resignation Leaves Boris Johnson With Brexit Meltdown

Frosty Resignation Leaves Boris Johnson With Brexit Meltdown

By the time Christmas Eve rolled around last year, Brits were well tired of Brexit. The trade talks were in their 11th hour, the details were mind-numbing and the big picture had been talked to death over four years. The pandemic made the tortuous divorce between the UK and European Union seem frivolous. A deal clinched, Boris Johnson declared victory and heaped praise on his hard-nosed chief negotiator, David Frost.

Now it seems to be Johnson himself whom people are tired of. Brexit is no longer an electoral cash machine for the prime minister, as the shock defeat in Brexit-voting North Shropshire, a seat the Tories held for some 200 years, proved. There has been a tsunami of criticism over the prime minister’s policy judgment and integrity. And in a major blow, Frost has now resigned.

In his resignation letter, Frost urged Johnson to deliver on “the opportunities Brexit gives us” — namely to create a low-tax, lightly regulated economy. And yet, Brexit imposed economic costs and opened new fault lines within the Conservative Party that now threaten the prime minister’s leadership.

Over the past year, Brexit has lurked in the background of disputes over fish, the migrant crisis and a shortage