Can May win Brexit gamble?

PM now playing for high stakes

THERESA MAY is playing for high stakes by tabling amendments to Parliamentary legislation next week to make Britain’s exit from the European Union legally binding on March 29, 2019, at 11pm.

Though this assurance might appease her more Eurosceptic colleagues, the Prime Minister will, potentially, be finished if this latest test of mettle is voted down by Tory rebels and the Opposition.

Yet, in many respects, Mrs May’s hand is being forced by the reluctance of the EU to make any concessions – its chief negotiator Michel Barnier says he won’t be able to recommend to European leaders next month that negotiations extend to trade talks unless there’s significant progress within the next two weeks on the so-called ‘divorce bill’ and other matters.

Like any observer of British politics, he, too, knows that Mrs May has never been weaker – she’s already lost two Cabinet Ministers this month and the Prime Minister becomes distracted by the controversies enveloping her deputy Damian Green and Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, that make it impossible to carry out a fundamental reshuffle to refresh a tired team.

However, while the latest opinion polls suggest some lingering sympathy towards Mrs May over her political predicament, and the extent to which she is let down so regularly by colleagues who should know better, she is paying the price for not being more collaborative over the Brexit negotiation from her premiership’s outset.

Given this process will have profound repercussions for every person, and every business, for decades to come, the Prime Minister had an opportunity to appoint a cross-party team of politicians, and the very best diplomats in the world, to represent the country under her leadership. That she did not do so means she’s unlikely to have sufficient support if the Tory party turns on itself.