Where now?
The hard choices facing Britain
Theresa May embarked on a tour of the UK this week to drum up support for her unloved Brexit divorce deal. She and other EU leaders signed off the agreement in a short meeting last Sunday. Both sides declared afterwards that it was the best and only deal available, and warned MPS that voting it down in Westminster on 11 December would not prompt the EU to make a better offer. May said the deal would deliver on the 2016 referendum by, among other things, ending free movement and allowing the UK to pursue an independent trade policy.
The prospects for the agreement – which consists of a 585-page, legally-binding withdrawal treaty and a 26-page broad statement on future relations – nevertheless look bleak. MPS lined up to criticise the package in the Commons. In a blow to May, even Michael Fallon, the staunchly loyal former defence secretary, said he would oppose a “doomed” deal that risked delivering the “worst of all worlds”. President Trump made May’s predicament worse by saying the agreement sounded “like a good deal for the EU” and suggesting it would hamper future trade deals between the UK and US.
What the editorials said
“They just don’t get it, do they?” said the Daily Mail. For years, hard-line Eurosceptics have campaigned for Brexit, yet now, “with the goal in sight”, they’re in danger of throwing it away by quibbling over terms. May’s deal isn’t perfect, but it would deliver an end to “free movement and gargantuan membership payments to Brussels”. MPS would be crazy to vote it down in the hopes of winning something better. They nevertheless look set to do just that, said The Economist. The reality is that as long as MPS think there’s still a chance of either securing a clean break from the EU or reversing Brexit, there won’t be enough votes for May’s “compromise”.
The PM’S strategy is to appeal to voters over the heads of politicians, in the hope that public pressure will force MPS into line, said The Independent. Hence her “letter to the nation” last weekend, in which she said it was time for the UK to come together and “move on”. That’s a vain hope. The political declaration on future UK-EU relations that accompanies the divorce deal is a “vague statement designed to mean all things to all people”. “This guarantees that leaving the EU next March will not draw a line under the divisive domestic debate,” but “merely mark the start of another phase”.