Theresa May is still keeping MPs guessing
OME Brexit enthusiasts on the Tory frontbench are fretting that the Prime Minister will cave in to the rebels on some key amendments governing the country’s future customs arrangements with Brussels rather than face defeat. “I think Theresa will do the right thing, but I’m just not sure,” one Cabinet minister told me. “I have no idea what is going on in the Prime Minister’s head,” another minister said.
Mrs May’s method of running her Government, listening to different sides of arguments while declining to signal any views of her own for as long as possible, is frustrating many ministers. “There is no direction at all,” one Cabinet source said, adding: “The whole of the Tory Party would get behind anyone with just a bit of vision.”
Cabinet ministers are understood to have set Mrs May a two-week deadline to sort out the mess over the post-Brexit customs arrangements. Insiders say claims from some Eurosceptic Tory MPs that Whitehall officials are conspiring to VISION: But the PM’s management style is frustrating strangle the departure process with bureaucratic inertia are unfair. “The civil servants are brilliant – the problems come from the instructions they are being given from the top,” one senior Tory said.
Many Eurosceptic MPs are worried that the drift and division radiated by the Government is emboldening the European Commission negotiators in the exit talks. Recent days have seen some provocative briefings from Brussels, including threats to freeze Britain out of the Galileo international satellite system and other security co-operation initiatives. EU officials have begun mocking the Government for appearing unable to make up its mind about what the country wants from the future relationship with the bloc.
MRS May has survived a series of previous crunch points in the negotiations ever since she activated the EU’s Article 50 exit procedure in March last year. Her watchand-wait strategy, only openly declaring a position when absolutely necessary, has kept the talks progressing while irritating some colleagues. That approach will be tested to the limit in the coming confrontation in the Commons.
Perhaps the Prime Minister’s favourite leisure-time reading has made her a master of suspense and an ingenious twist in the Brexit plot is about to be revealed. The frustration being expressed by many of her senior ministers suggests the patience of her audience may be wearing thin. If she fails to engineer a satisfying resolution to the story, Mrs May could end up being the victim in her own crime thriller.