The Brexit backlash May: is her plan “dead in the water”?

Theresa May narrowly survived a series of Commons votes this week that intensified the Tories’ bitter divisions over Brexit. On Monday, the Prime Minister bowed to pressure from Eurosceptic MPS by accepting four amendments to the Customs Bill. No. 10 insisted the changes were consistent with the soft Brexit blueprint agreed by the Cabinet at Chequers earlier this month. But the concession enraged pro-eu MPS, who claimed the amendments – the most controversial of which could prevent the UK from collecting tariffs for the EU unless Brussels agreed to a reciprocal arrangement – were clearly designed to scupper the plan. There was a second round of Tory infighting on Tuesday when the Government, with the help of Labour Eurosceptics, saw off an attempt by Remainer MPS to keep Britain in a customs union with the EU in the event of no deal.

Justine Greening, the pro-eu former education secretary, had earlier raised the stakes by calling for a second Brexit referendum, arguing that it was the only way to break the Westminster “stalemate”. No. 10 rejected the idea, saying a new referendum wouldn’t happen under “any circumstances”.

What the editorials said

“Compromises, by their nature, please no one,” said The Times. And that’s certainly true of the Chequers plan. Brexiteers claim it “would trap Britain’s finger in the Brussels mangle, [leaving it] unable to regain its sovereignty or enjoy the freedoms of true independence”; as for Remainers, they argue that it would simply consign the UK to a second-rate form of EU membership. May’s plan is a brave attempt at bridging the Brexit divide, said The Independent, but with everyone from Peter Mandelson to Boris Johnson condemning it as “the worst of both worlds”, there’s little prospect of the Tories uniting behind it soon. May will have to go to the crucial EU summit in October with a Brexit White Paper that “plainly lacks the support even of her own party, let alone the Commons or the country as a whole”.

Despite the backlash, the PM seems intent on sticking to her course, said The Daily Telegraph. So if the Brexiteers really want to be sure of stopping her Chequers blueprint, their only option is to try to boot her out of office. The trouble is, how can they be sure that her replacement won’t pursue a similar strategy, or that her removal won’t trigger “such a political fallout that Brexit will not happen at all”?