Over fine claret, Lord Mandelson set out his vision for a cosier relationship with his beloved EU: ANDREW PIERCE reveals what happened inside the secret country house summit about Britain’s links with Brussels
They gathered in secrecy in the Great Hall in Ditchley Park where Winston Churchill had held clandestine meetings with the Americans during the Second World War.
The 20 guests at the special conference to address the challenges of Brexit included Lord Mandelson, high priest of the black art of political propaganda, who is a former Labour Cabinet minister and EU commissioner – and, of course, an ardent Remainer.
On the Brexit side was Michael Gove, the Levelling Up Secretary, who was a key figure in Vote Leave. Like all Cabinet ministers, he showed his diary of events in advance to No 10 who nevertheless say they never knew that he would be attending.
When they arrived on Thursday afternoon, the participants were politely but firmly reminded, over cups of Earl Grey tea, of the golden ‘Ditchley Rule’: ‘Contributions are unattributable and interventions are made in strict confidence’. In other words, what is said at Ditchley remains at Ditchley.
Yet within 36 hours of the meeting breaking-up, in which Remainers heavily outnumbered the Brexiteers, the conference had been leaked to a Labour-supporting Sunday newspaper under the headline: ‘Secret cross-party summit held to confront the failings of Brexit’.
The 20 guests at the special conference to address the challenges of Brexit included Lord Mandelson, high priest of the black art of political propaganda, who is a former Labour Cabinet minister and EU commissioner
On the Brexit side was Michael Gove, the Levelling Up Secretary, who was a key figure in Vote Leave
So much for the Ditchley Rule. The Press report said that Lord Mandelson was chairman of the two-day proceedings – which was a surprise to those who attended. The former Foreign Office diplomat James Arroyo, director of the Ditchley Foundation which organised the conference, was head of most of the sessions.
The report of the gathering at the magnificent 40-room mansion, set in 4,000 acres of land in Oxfordshire, has triggered renewed fears of a Remainer plot to unravel Brexit and take Britain back into the European single market and customs union.
Guests included the arch-remainer Sir Tom Scholar, the former Treasury mandarin. As David Cameron’s Europe adviser he failed to secure any concessions from Brussels during the ex-PM’s ill-fated renegotiation of the UK’s relationship with the EU that preceded the Brexit vote in 2016.
READ MORE – Secret plan to unravel Brexit: Lord Frost warns secret summit on ‘making relations with the EU better’ is further evidence of plot to unravel exit deals and have UK ‘stay shadowing Brussels’
The suspicion of an Establishment plot will be increased by a cursory glance at the list of governors of the Ditchley Foundation – a charity that holds conferences with a primary focus on British-American relations.
They include Jo Johnson, the brother of the former PM, who is a dripping wet Europhile; Roland Rudd, the silky smooth PR maestro, dubbed the ‘Godfather of Remain’, who was a founder of the doomed People’s Vote for a second referendum; David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, who has likened Brexiteers to ‘Nazis’; Douglas Alexander, a former Labour Europe minister; Lord Mandelson; and Stephanie Flanders, a former BBC economics editor.
The chairman of the foundation’s governors is Lord Hill, a former EU commissioner who was a private secretary to former prime minister Sir John Major who bitterly opposed Brexit. Hill was ‘heartbroken’ by the referendum result. ‘Ditchley is a hotbed of Remainers,’ said one senior Conservative MP last night. ‘Last week’s secret conference is a sign they are on manoeuvres.’
A measure of the sensitivity of the gathering is the fact that conferences at the property usually include a published agenda and guest list. Yet there was no mention of the Brexit conference on the Ditchley website before it took place or afterwards.
I can disclose, however, that there were a number of formal discussions held at a round table in the historic library which has books dating back to the reign of Elizabeth I.
Guests included the arch-remainer Sir Tom Scholar, the former Treasury mandarin
The chairman of the foundation’s governors is Lord Hill, a former EU commissioner who was a private secretary to former prime minister Sir John Major who bitterly opposed Brexit
In the first set of discussions, there was a heated conversation about trading rules with the EU. Mandelson (who else?) was vocal in support of Britain negotiating new terms to, in his words, ‘smooth out the friction’ in the current arrangements.
But he was met by a wall of noise from the Brexiteers who included former chancellor Lord Lamont, one of the first mainstream politicians in Britain to call for Britain to leave the EU in a speech at the Tory conference in 1994. Lord Howard, a former Tory leader, Lord Bridges who was a Brexit minister, and Gove were also making their voices heard.
READ MORE – MICK HULME: The Ditchley Park plot is just the kind of anti-democratic skulduggery that led many to vote for Brexit
They all made the point that if anyone started trying to strike new deals with the EU it would lead to closer alignment with Brussels. ‘Their view was we should work with what we’ve got to make it work better,’ said one source from the meeting.
There was also talk on defence in the light of the Ukraine war and how to make the best of Britain’s thriving life sciences industry. Sir Jonathan Symonds, chairman of GSK, was at the conference. The Remainers, with Mandelson and Lammy to the fore, complained about Britain’s exclusion from the EU’s £84billion Horizon research and development project, to which the UK would have given £2billion a year had we remained in the EU.
But the scientists in the room argued that it was now in the country’s interests to seek their own British science partnerships beyond the union rather than concede more ground to Brussels in order to try to be readmitted to Horizon.
‘The scientists and even some Remainers argued we have to move on and develop the potential which Brexit can offer us to develop projects beyond the EU,’ said another source. In the evening before dinner, a sparkling English white wine was served. A fine claret was offered with the main course, beef in a red wine sauce. The mood was convivial and relaxed and everyone was on first-name terms.
Some of the guests were given a guided tour of the property which Churchill used as a secret base to meet with the US presidential envoy Harry Hopkins as he was trying to secure America’s backing in the war against Hitler.
David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, has likened Brexiteers to ‘Nazis’
Pictured: Ditchley Park near Woodstock, Oxfordshire UK
In fact, the house has been close to the seat of power since the reign of Elizabeth I who often met there with her chief counsellor William Cecil, the first Lord Burghley. His descendant, Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, the 7th Marquess of Salisbury, was one of those at last week’s conference. A Brexiteer and former Tory MP, he was outspoken in his wish for the Government to be doing more to make Brexit work.
In 2019 he wrote a blistering letter to then prime minister Theresa May attacking her Brexit negotiations which had ground to a halt.
‘We have reached this position as a result of the way you have conducted the negotiations. We are no longer a proud nation, but a postulant and humiliated one. This embarrassment has been brought about by a government provided by members of the Conservative Party.’
Another source said: ‘It’s so obvious the details of this conference were leaked by the Labour Party to try to embarrass the Tory government. They have characterised the meeting as all doom and gloom. It wasn’t like that at all.’
In the Remain camp there were serious questions being asked last night about whether the entire conference had backfired on them. One of the most senior figures involved in opposing Brexit in the referendum said: ‘It was a mistake to involve Peter Mandelson who’s a divisive figure.
‘It’s been reported he was chairing the conference when he clearly was not. He’s not a good advertisement for those us who want to get Britain back into a closer relationship with the EU.
‘This has gone pear-shaped because whoever leaked it on our side did so to try to make cheap points at the expense of the Brexiteers. All they’ve achieved is to create the unwelcome impression the Establishment, the civil service, are still trying to unpick the referendum.’
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