Britain's new Brexit negotiator seen as potential successor to PM

LONDON • Mr Boris Johnson has named Foreign Secretary Liz Truss to take over post-Brexit negotiations with the European Union after a torrid week that left the British Prime Minister under unprecedented pressure just as the coronavirus surges again.

The appointment of the most popular Cabinet minister among the Conservative grassroots was announced less than 24 hours after the shock resignation of Mr David Frost. He was a one-time confidant of Mr Johnson who fell out with the premier not only over Brexit but over the possibility of more clampdowns to stem the spread of the latest Covid-19 variant.

There is political peril for Mr Johnson in the public health imperatives resulting from an alarming surge in the Omicron variant. It risks straining the country's venerated National Health Service.

Yet Mr Johnson appears powerless to intervene because his authority has dissipated in the past week. A record mutiny by his Conservative MPs over further Covid-19 restrictions has tested what looked like an insurmountable majority in Parliament.

That was followed by a humiliating defeat at the hands of voters in a special local election and it was capped by the loss of Mr Frost, his Brexit right-hand man.

Any hope Mr Johnson may have had for respite over the Christmas holidays and parliamentary recess has likely dissipated. His Tories have plunged behind Labour in national polls, and Mr Johnson's personal ratings have dived.

Two years after winning a landslide general election, his administration has been plunged into scandal - from Members of Parliament betraying a conflict of interest to his own people breaking Covid-19 rules the government set.

The Guardian posted a photo of Mr Johnson, with his wife and staff socialising outside in May last year, when Britain was in lockdown.

It is the latest damaging revelation that showed how his inner circle held parties they should not have - though Downing Street has denied that a party took place.

That brings into sharper focus the elevation of 46-year-old Ms Truss, especially as PM Johnson's star has waned.

After Mr Johnson, she is arguably now the most powerful person in government next to Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak - and both have been touted as potential successors to Mr Johnson.

The Times has reported that Ms Truss and Mr Sunak are among the top ministers resisting calls to toughen the Covid-19 rules before Christmas.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps and Leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg are also opposed to the move, the paper said.

The Conservatives, one of the most successful parties in Europe, are ruthless at disposing of leaders they no longer see as winners.

Many political observers are reading the tea leaves and looking for signs that a leadership challenge to Mr Johnson could be brewing. The timing is tricky, in the middle of a pandemic with an actual general election that can be put off until 2024.

Mr Johnson's quick move to fill the Brexit negotiator post with a Cabinet big-hitter underlines the importance he places on the role as Britain tries to reshape the trading terms it agreed just a year ago with the bloc.

Ms Truss had campaigned for Remain in the 2016 referendum, but has since embraced Brexit with the zeal of a convert. She now has the power, and Mr Johnson's ear, to shape Britain's relationship with its closest neighbours after a fractious divorce from the EU.

If Brussels was hoping for a soft touch, Ms Truss would not be it. An ardent fan of Margaret Thatcher, both in her embrace of free markets and her disdain for the EU, she operates within a party that has purged many of its europhiles.

At the top of Ms Truss' inbox in her new role will be to see through negotiations opened by Mr Frost with the EU to unpick trading arrangements between Northern Ireland and mainland Britain.

Under the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol, goods moving into the region from the rest of Britain are subject to Customs checks if they should later be moved into the EU. Britain wants changes to the accord, which it says inhibits trade between different parts of the country's own single market.

Mr Frost and the EU last Friday said they wanted to resolve their differences early in 2022.

BLOOMBERG