Rise of the born again Brexiteers
tions. European Commission chiefs have already rejected the blueprint for high-tech border controls that is Mrs May’s only alternative to the dumped partnership proposal. Chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier spent much of the week posturing on the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic to rubbish the Brexiteers’ border solution while Irish premier Leo Varadkar has been threatening to veto it.
EU officials still hope the Commons will force the Government into accepting a fudge but are increasingly nervous that the Brexiteers gaining the ascendancy within the Cabinet. With the Brussels and UK negotiating teams both hardening their position, senior Tories admit the chances of Mrs May being forced to walk out of the talks without a deal have begun to rise again. “It is getting difficult to see how the circle gets squared,” one said.
A departure from the EU without a deal, leaving the UK trading with the bloc on the basis of World Trade Organisation rules, would delight long-standing Tory Eurosceptics. And the Cabinet’s most enthusiastic Brexiteers are understood to be quietly biding their time in the hope that the talks do collapse and the complete break with Brussels they have always dreamed of arrives.
Mrs May, who has long insisted that “no deal is better than a bad deal”, will need to be prepared to trumpet the virtues of a walkout if she is to escape such an outcome wrecking her premiership. The Prime Minister took the bold and unexpected decision to promote Mr Javid this week. She may well need to spring some more surprises to address the consequences of the altered balance in her team.