Cabinet talks and talks – but to no end

The longest Cabinet meeting of modern times did not, at least, result in any ministers walking out other than for a stroll around the Downing Street garden to stretch cramped legs. There was never any great expectation that they would agree on an approach given the deep divisions over the way forward for Brexit.

It appears that a majority of ministers, seeking an end to the Brexit impasse once and for all, wanted to leave next week without a deal but Theresa May vetoed that option. Instead, she has gone for a variant of the national unity approach proposed at the weekend by Sir John Major. There is not to be a formal arrangement of the sort last seen in the Second World War and during the Great Depression; but Mrs May will invite Jeremy Corbyn to work in tandem to agree a plan that will get through the Commons.

This option has always been available. Indeed, a Withdrawal Agreement allied to a customs union in the next stage of talks about future trading relationships could have got through months ago. That Mrs May has been forced into this position at this stage of proceedings is the final humiliation for her.

Mr Corbyn will ask for a customs union at the very least; yet only 37 Conservative MPS voted for that option when it came up in the House on Monday. It is anathema to scores of Tories who see little point in leaving the EU to have no control over the UK’S future trade policy. Indeed, the 2017 election manifesto, often quoted by ministers at recalcitrant Tory MPS, said that “no deal is better than a bad deal” and “we will no longer be members of the single market or customs union”.

Mrs May’s authority has now evaporated. Her responsibility is to govern, yet that function has been partially ceded to the House of Commons. MPS will again take control of business today to push through a Bill preventing the Prime Minister leaving the EU next Friday without a deal.

It is not apparent whether the legislation championed by Yvette Cooper and Sir Oliver Letwin could actually stop a no-deal Brexit were the executive intent on delivering one; but since it isn’t, this now seems superfluous. John Bercow, the Speaker, is facilitating what is, by any measure, an extraordinary constitutional procedure.

Mrs May’s cross-party olive branch extends only to Labour and not to the SNP, further deepening the rift with the Scots Nats. They want another referendum, and Mrs May doubtless believes that Mr Corbyn’s ambivalence on this matter suggests it will not be among his demands. But Labour’s position has shifted. Tom Watson, the deputy leader, said at the weekend that it would be “inconceivable” that Labour would not commit to another referendum in a general election.

Is the Prime Minister prepared to go along with a People’s Vote after all she has said about it? Proponents say this is the “solution” to the current impasse. But how can it be? What they mean is that it gets them off the particular hook on which they are currently impaled. Some Remainers believe that, asked again, the people will see the error of their ways and vote to stay.

What it emphatically will not do is heal the deep divisions that have opened in the country. Indeed, it will make them worse. Any campaign will be fractious, with those who voted to Leave asking why they should take part since their views were ignored before. Moreover, what happens if Remain wins but with fewer votes than Leave achieved in 2016? How will that be democratic? Moreover, will the question include an option to remain when that was settled by the last referendum; or will there be multiple choices?

The damage that another referendum would inflict is not fully appreciated by its ardent champions, so determined are they to ride roughshod over the democratic process. The Cabinet talked and talked but to what purpose? If they had hoped to end the uncertainty that is alarming the markets and perplexing the country, they failed.

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Mr Corbyn will ask for a customs union at the very least; yet only 37 Tory MPS voted for that option