Brexit disaster looms for May

BRITISH Prime Minister Theresa May yesterday stared at the prospect of her political career coming to an inglorious end after her final attempt to save her unpopular Brexit deal met condemnation in parliament and a senior government figure resigned.

The beleaguered leader is in the last throes of a tumultuous rule focused all-but exclusively on guiding her fractured country out of the European Union in one piece.

But three overwhelming rejections by parliament of the terms she struck with the other 27 nations last year have forced Britain to miss the original March 29 departure date and plead for more time.

Anxious members of May’s party met behind closed doors on Wednesday to discuss changes to the rules that would let them vote no-confidence in her leadership.

Her woes were made worse when Andrea Leadsom – one of cabinet’s strongest Brexit backers – resigned from her post as the government’s representative in parliament over May’s handling of the slowly unfolding crisis. “I no longer believe that our approach will deliver on the (2016) referendum results,” Leadsom said in her resignation letter.

In her response, May thanked Leadsom for her “passion, drive and sincerity”, but took issue with her assessment of the government’s Brexit strategy.

“I do not agree with you that the deal which we have negotiated with the European Union means that the United Kingdom will not become a sovereign country,” May said.

May is now paying the price for failing to deliver on the wishes of voters who chose by a narrow margin in 2016 to break their uneasy four-decade involvement in the European integration project.

Her Conservatives are set to get thumped in European Parliament

I NO LONGER BELIEVE THAT OUR APPROACH WILL DELIVER ON THE (2016) REFERENDUM RESULTS. ANDREA LEADSOM

elections on Thursday in which the brand new Brexit Party of anti-EU populist Nigel Farage is running away with the polls.

May has already promised to step down no matter the outcome of her fourth attempt to ram her version of Brexit through parliament in early June.

But even that sacrifice – and a package of sweeteners unveiled on Wednesday that included a chance for politicians to get a second Brexit referendum – failed to win hearts and minds.

“It’s time for the prime minister to go,” the pro-EU Scottish National Party’s Ian Blackford said in parliament.