The scandals at Westminster?
Commons. And there are sleaze allegations repeatedly rocking the government. But there is, perhaps, another similarity to the 1990s that is less remarked upon. When John Major was Prime Minister, he didn’t pick a side on Europe because his survival strategy was to avoid doing so. Some think May is doing the same: that her refusal to set out the UK’s final relationship with the EU is a deliberate attempt to extend her shelf-life.
Certainly, both sides in the Cabinet debate fear that the other could win if May went early. Brexiteers worry that her departure would mean that the commitments for Britain to leave the single market and the customs union could be unpicked. By contrast, those who backed Remain think that only a Leaver could gain the leadership now and that they would owe their premiership to a pledge that Britain would break decisively with the EU. Indeed, a growing number of ministers who voted Remain think that if a leadership election takes place before March 30, 2019, the next leader will have to be a Leaver. I understand that when one former member of David Cameron’s Downing Street team recently checked to see if Amber Rudd would throw her hat into the ring in these circumstances, he was told that she didn’t think she could be a candidate before Britain has left the EU.
The question is whether May will show her hand anytime soon. Remarkably, the cabinet has still not had a proper discussion on this issue. Its members have never sat down and hammered out whether they are ultimately prepared to sacrifice some market access for the ability to diverge from EU regulations. This failure to make a decision is stopping the government from articulating a vision for Britain after Brexit. If Britain is prepared to diverge from the EU, then the government can start setting out how it intends to make this country the best place in the Western world to do gene editing, develop machine learning and bring driverless cars to market. This would be a proper 21st century strategy.
No. 10 is being buffeted by events. So far, the ministers and Tory MPs who are in trouble in this Westminster scandal are being probed for things that happened before Ms May became PM. But the government is finding it so hard to get on the front foot because it doesn’t have a story to tell about itself. That needs to change — but it won’t until the government decides what kind of country it wants Britain to be. By arrangement with the Spectator