May’s Brexit plan is dead on arrival

It was a stroke of genius, albeit one born of desperation. Theresa

May gives nothing away that she doesn’t want to, so we can assume that she fully intended to divulge the Brexit “advice” given to her by Donald Trump in her interview with Andrew Marr on Sunday.

As an attempt to deflect from all the other problems she’s facing, it was a valiant failure. In fact, the US president’s advice may not have been that daft after all.

May stands as much chance of success suing the European Union as she does getting her own Brexit strategy through parliament.

It feels faintly ridiculous to call the document produced by the Cabinet away day at Chequers less than a fortnight ago an “agreement” – it has produced so little agreement that two of the highest profile members of the cabinet quit in protest. While the departures that followed have hardly been box office, someone with a job title has quit either the government or Conservative HQ every day since last Monday.

The Chequers deal and the White Paper that followed are about as unloved as any words committed to paper since June 23, 2016.

Brexiteers hate it, saying it will keep the UK tied to EU regulations and bind the hands of parliament. Now that they’re no longer the most rebellious bunch on the Tory benches, Remainers also feel emboldened to kick the government. Justine Greening has said she is in favour of a new referendum on whether to take the Prime Minister’s deal or stay in the EU.

Corbyn loyalists on the Labour benches hate the plan because they have to, even though it’s difficult to pick out the differences between what May is proposing and the opposition’s own plans.

PRO-EU Labour MPS, a group that largely overlaps with those out of favour on the front bench, also hate it; they resent being asked by Tory moderates terrified of a no-deal Brexit to lend their votes to the government so that the economy isn’t taken over a cliff.

Most significantly of all, voters don’t seem too keen on it either. The first round of opinion polls since the Chequers deal have come out, and five of the last seven have Labour either tied in or in the lead – something that hasn’t been seen since February.

Yesterday’s capitulation by the government over four amendments to customs legislation confirms that