Britain deserves some answers on Brexit
Nearly two years have passed since the country voted in a referendum to leave the EU. Yet the Government seems to be no closer to securing the severance agreement that would honour the electorate’s decision while acknowledging the closeness of the result. Rather than lead the country in an optimistic direction, Theresa May is presiding over a process that some Brexiteers feel might leave the country in a worse position than if it had stayed in the EU.
The tortuous nature of the negotiations, the contradictory pledges given in order to make progress, the effective continuation of membership under the guise of “transition” – first to the end of 2019 and now possibly beyond – have left the country bewildered.
Mrs May promised that “Brexit means Brexit”; but her idea of what that entails is getting murkier by the day. The Cabinet has so far failed to agree a position on future customs arrangements that can be put to EU negotiators. It now transpires that the Government might seek to extend the UK’S ties to the customs union if the complex technology needed to operate border controls is not ready by the end of the implementation period, as it almost certainly will not be. Eurosceptics fear this could become a permanent state of affairs, for which the UK would have to contribute to the EU budget.
Much of Mrs May’s difficulties have stemmed from fighting an election in which she failed to secure the emphatic majority she needed to get the deed done. This wasted some nine months during which the negotiations should have been much further advanced and has left the Government at risk of a parliamentary ambush at every turn.
The lack of a majority has emboldened the House of Lords to inflict more than a dozen defeats on the EU Withdrawal Bill. The Scots parliament has rejected the legislation, raising the spectre of a constitutional stand-off with Westminster. The Irish border issue is unresolved but EU leaders are expecting an answer to the conundrum in less than five weeks’ time. It appears that a new “backstop” arrangement has been agreed that the Irish might accept but which might entail retaining regulatory alignment with the EU to prevent a hard border.
With just 10 months left before Article 50 expires, the Government intends to set out its ambitions for post-brexit Britain in a white paper. Mrs May has asked the country to trust her to deliver Brexit. But to what purpose? We need to know.