Can chef May cook up a recipe for Brexit success?
I WOULDN’T be surprised if Theresa May is ruing the day she threw her hat into the ring for the top job in UK politics.
The former home secretary could have waited in the wings while someone else cooked up Brexit.
Instead, she’s the head chef with her hands in the food processor – and at the moment it’s making one heck of a mess.
To be fair, she does seem genuinely committed to making a success of it.
But her decision to stay tightlipped has fuelled both a damaging assumption that the UK Government has no plan at all, as well as an obsession with her ministers’ every cough and spit.
Every word uttered is combed over and combed over again.
And the absence of anything substantial to say encourages freelancing or – particularly when under pressure – the drip-feeding of information that may or not be true.
Brexit Secretary David Davis was the latest to set hares running when he said the UK would consider making payments to the EU after it leaves the bloc to secure the best possible access to the single market.
And then there’s Boris who can be trusted to produce semi-deliberate gaffes practically on demand.
This week’s offering – immediately denied – was his “very clear” claim to four European ambassadors that he backs freedom of movement of EU citizens into and out of Britain.
Of course, none of this necessarily sheds any light on what a final deal might look like.
Essentially it’s just noise – albeit noise that will become increasingly frenzied and harmful as the unbearable countdown to the triggering of Article 50 continues.
It’s no doubt annoying for Mrs May – her frustration is evident in her regularly sub-par performances at Prime Minister’s Questions.
And this week’s four-day, televised Supreme Court appeal – heard by 11 judges who aren’t expected to rule until the new year – will shine an even brighter spotlight on the debate.
The case centres on whether the Prime Minister can activate the twoyear process for leaving the EU without parliament’s support.
As far as she’s concerned it’s black and white – the people voted to leave the EU, Brexit means Brexit, the Government can exercise its socalled prerogative powers.
But last month the High Court upheld the complaint of investment fund manager Gina Miller and others, who argued only Parliament can take away rights granted by Parliament.
It is now for the highest court in the land, which has agreed to hear representation from the Scottish Government, to determine who is right.
If the Supreme Court judges endorse the High Court’s opinion, it will force the Tory Government into a parliamentary vote.
Mrs May has said she is confident of winning, but – regardless of the outcome – she seems resolved to keep to her March deadline.
With that in mind, ministers have reportedly prepared a bomb-proof, three-line bill.
A back-up in case the Government loses, it is believed to be so tightly drawn it will be difficult to amend, with the aim of pushing it through the Commons quickly. It would then have to go before the Lords, however, and some peers may be keen to throw a spanner in the works.
Ministers believe they wouldn’t dare block the legislation if it had been approved by MPs, but this is by no means certain.
Remember they are unelected and so not accountable to their constituents at the ballot box like their colleagues in the lower house.
Moreover, last month, Deputy President of the Supreme Court Lady Hale suggested the process could be significantly more complicated.
She raised the question of whether a “simple Act of Parliament” would be enough to give notice or whether a comprehensive replacement of the 1972 act that took the UK into the European Economic Community would be required.
This would be the ultimate headache for Mrs May who looks unlikely to be splatter-free any time soon.
Getting the kind of meal she wants into the oven will be a huge challenge.