May must speak to other parties over Brexit. That might just save her skin
It’s finally here. No more sleeps. Brexit has begun. The talks are under way. The clock is ticking. Actually, the clock has been ticking for some time now but instead of cracking on with the talks, our Prime Minister decided it was a good idea to call a snap general election and burn seven weeks trashing her reputation and making Britain a laughing stock, but there you go. Brexit feels like when you call one of those very expensive, rather dodgy plumbers and you’re super-conscious of time and they suddenly declare that not only do they not have the part you need, but they need to go off to a builders’ merchant to buy one and of course it’s on the clock.
David Davis and Michel Barnier acknowledged that they have a mountain to climb in Brexit talks by giving each other hiking-related gifts. Yep. Top Brexit bantz. Davis gave Barnier a rare book on mountaineering and Davis was given a hiking stick – a promise of a rescue helicopter later down the track to air-lift us to safety would have been more apt, given it feels like we are trying to climb Mount Everest in flip flops.
And of course, our top team of Brexit negotiators are pretty much all posh, white men from London because nobody else anywhere in the land could possibly have any talent or experience. Plus ça change.
I was a Remainer, but I’m a democrat and I believe we have to respect the will of the people from the referendum last summer. I believe in the Union but if the Scottish referendum had gone the other way in 2014, I would have accepted that result.
Both sides of the Brexit argument must be careful about how much they use the recent election result for their own ends. Leavers cannot say that because the majority of people voted for two parties which pledged not to reverse Brexit, that that is somehow a green light for a reckless, hard Brexit which would jeopardise jobs and growth. And Remainers need to be careful of saying that there was a Labour surge to stop Brexit.
My experience knocking on doors and touring my one-woman show about politics all around the country was that Brexit didn’t come up that often at all. The issues that people were most affected by were the effects of austerity, cuts to schools, the health service, housing and opportunities for young people.
This election felt like a damning verdict on domestic bread and butter issues in the UK and not about the Customs Union – as important as that may be. I spoke to Labour voters who had voted to leave the EU, stood by their decision and wanted the Government to get on with it, but they were worried about the effect on their small businesses and also were clear that even though immigration has been a concern, they still expected and needed to be able to hire people from the EU. One guy I spoke to said he wanted the Government not to just stop people coming here but to invest in local young men so they could have the skills to take the jobs he was offering. A lot of Remainers I spoke to felt like the battle had happened last summer and they too just wanted the Government to crack on with getting a decent exit plan.
But the great anxiety which pervades our politics and national mood right now is austerity.
All the horrific recent events means we are all thinking about our public services and how we can best resource them, whether it’s the police, fire fighters or emergency services, all over the country. The devastating Grenfell fire has turned the spotlight on cuts to local authorities across the country and raised questions about what kind of society we are and how we look after and on a very basic level, house our citizens.
We are all aware of the growing inequality from the rise in food banks to people sleeping rough. We know people are fed-up of seven years of austerity which hasn’t done the job it was supposed to. And when that strong anti-austerity sentiment intersects with a Brexit which could harm the economy, there will be trouble in Parliament.
The Great Repeal Bill will try to transport every piece of EU legislation into domestic law and this will be an absolute parliamentary nightmare. The Department of the Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs will have 1,200 pieces of law to work through alone! Theresa May no doubt hopes it will keep Michael Gove busy and too tied up to plot against her. I wouldn’t be so sure. Getting all these bills transferred and of course putting the Brexit deal to Parliament is going to be tough. There is a majority in the House of Commons for a softer Brexit and Ruth Davidson will have an important role in all of this too. Jeremy Corbyn will be in a strong position to work with other parties including the SNP and Lib Dems to block and frustrate things and the House of Lords will be as difficult as possible on a hard Brexit.
Given how weak the PM is at home and abroad and given how important it is to get through Brexit in as sane and safe a way possible for the economy, it would make so much sense for Theresa May to establish a cross party, UK wider commission on Brexit. Nicola Sturgeon and Carwyn Jones from Wales have called for this as has Yvette Cooper as Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee. I would like to see Sturgeon lead by example and bring together Labour, the Tories and the Lib Dems in Holyrood to establish a cross-party set of Scottish objectives from immigration to trading arrangements. The genesis of Brexit was party political. The referendum was used by David Cameron as a way to fight his right-wing backbenchers and he lost badly. But that dangerous game now has profound effects for the country at the worst possible time with austerity really biting hard. Theresa May should be brave and do the right thing for her country by bringing in other parties and national leaders. Who knows – doing the right thing may even save her own skin.