May, weakened by vote, tries to keep status quo
But analysts say premiership may be ending soon.
Thursday’s outcome instantly complicated British Prime Minister Theresa May’s meticulously laid strategy for getting out of the EU.
On the day after LONDON — British voters delivered an astonishing repudiation of Prime Minister Theresa May at the very moment that she had expected to be her crowning glory, she tried to go on as though nothing much had changed.
She would stay on as prime minister. She would keep her cabinet’s elite circle. Her plans for Brexit would go forward.
“That’s what people voted for last June,” she announced defiantly outside 10 Downing Street after meeting with the queen to discuss her new government.
“That’s what we’ll deliver. Now let’s get to work,” she said.
But beneath the bravado was a creeping reality: A year after voters stunned the establishment with a vote to get out of the European Union, they had done it once more. In the process, they may have thrust a dagger through the heart of a young premiership that only days ago had looked to be on the verge of achieving power of Thatcher-esque proportions.
“It’s not clear to me that Theresa May is going to survive the next few days,” said Ian Kearns, co-founder of the European Leadership Network, a London-based think tank. “The level of damage that she’s done to her own brand is immense.” At the very least, Kearns
and other observers said Friday, May will have to thor- oughly rethink her plans for Brexit only days before crit- ical talks with the European Union are due to launch. An
uncompromising demand for a hard break from Europe may have to be downgraded to a far more modest rup- ture, Kearns said.
Outwardly, May showed no signs of yielding to that pressure Friday. Just hours after her voice broke as she offered her shaky, 3 a.m. response to an election that ended with her Conserva- tive Party losing its majority in Parliament, she was grim-faced and joyless as she stood in front of Downing Street and announced she would stay on as prime minister.
“I will now form a govern- ment — a government that can provide certainty and lead Britain forward at this critical time for our coun- try,” she said.
Not once did she men- tion the election that she had gambled would give her enhanced powers, but instead left her grievously wounded.
Behind the scenes, members of her own party were discussing whether to keep her, with some concluding that, sooner or later, she would have to go.
May also promised there would be no delays in nego- tiations with the European Union, which are scheduled to begin June 19.
“What the country needs more than ever is certainty,” she insisted.
The results from Thurs- day’s vote did not create any immediate path for the country to walk back from the Brexit brink. But the outcome instantly complicated — if not scuttled — May’s metic- ulously laid strategy for getting out of the EU, while also heightening doubts that she can reach a deal with European leaders over the next two years.
Without an agreement, Britain would crash out of the bloc and face giving up all the privileges of mem- bership.