Britain’s ‘zombie government’ presents Brexit laws
LONDON: Prime Minister Theresa May, leading a “zombie” government after a disastrous election, yesterday unveiled a diluted programme of action that included the mammoth legislation needed to take Britain out of the European Union.
The state opening of Parliament by Queen Elizabeth II came after a string of tragedies which have shaken the nation, and the election on June 8 in which May’s Conservatives saw their parliamentary majority wiped out.
The queen, at an occasion shorn of its usual pageantry, read out the watered-down list of proposed legislation and lawmakers will then spend the next few days debating before bringing it to a vote.
May could be forced to resign if she loses the vote, expected on June 29.
After four terror attacks and a deadly tower block blaze that have darkened the national mood, anti-government protesters are also planning a “Day of Rage” in the streets that will converge outside Parliament with temperatures forecast to hit 34°C — London’s hottest June day since 1976.
The queen said: “My government’s priority is to secure the best possible deal as the country leaves the EU.”
She said her government would seek “to build the widest possible consensus on the country’s future outside the EU”, amid divisions within May’s cabinet over the best strategy.
The speech announced no fewer than eight bills to implement Brexit, and new legislation aimed at tackling extremist content online after the terror attacks.
But the speech was notable also for what it did not contain.
There was no mention of May’s hugely controversial invitation to United States President Donald Trump to come on a state visit.
Also absent were key pledges the Conservatives had given in their manifesto for the recent election which analysts said had bombed with the electorate, such as reform of social care for the elderly and more shake-ups in schools.
The Times branded May’s administration the “stumbling husk of a zombie government” and said she was now “so weak that she cannot arbitrate between squabbling cabinet ministers”.
“Downing Street is a vacuum,” the newspaper said.
May has resisted calls to resign and is hoping for the support of the Democratic Unionist Party’s 10 members of parliament to boost her tally of 317 seats in the 650-seat Parliament, but a deal has proved elusive so far.
A DUP source said a deal was “certainly not imminent” as the talks “haven’t proceeded in a way that the DUP would have expected” and cautioned that the party “can’t be taken for granted”. AFP