Win for Farage means victory for Corbyn

Leavers to the right of her, remainers to the left of her, into the european Parliament elections rides Theresa May.

Current polling suggests that the Conservative Party as a whole is likely to fare rather less well than the Light Brigade. With support under half that enjoyed by the Brexit Party, the Tories are vying for third place in Thursday’s vote.

at their head sits a Prime Minister battered beyond endurance, clinging to the saddle as impatient lieutenants bid for her command. Nigel Farage appears the likely winner of this zombie election battle – one never wanted by Mrs May – but his will be a pyrrhic victory.

The great disruptor of British politics has nothing to offer except protest against a system that has so far failed to deliver on a simple promise: that of an orderly departure from the european Union.

amid the smoke and thunder lurks the real potential victor in a Conservative defeat – the unreformed Marxist Jeremy Corbyn, a Leaver by instinct but increasingly in thrall to his remain wing, with its fixation on a second referendum.

Labour, cynical in its quest for power, never intended that talks with the Government on the Withdrawal agreement should succeed. That much is clear.

Less clear is what comes next in the Conservative leadership. reality dictates that Mrs May’s successor will fare better if drawn from the Leave faction. But the successful candidate must be able to unify a party divided by competing visions of Britain’s future relationship with europe.

even at this stage, a sensible exit is still possible if sanity prevails and MPs rally round a single option in early June. a decent vote for the Tories in the euro-poll would help stave off demands for a switch to a hardline policy resulting in No Deal.

The patience of Tory members and voters may be strained to the limit but answering the siren call of Mr Farage and his singleissue lash-up of a party is not the answer.