Brexit symptom of UK’s political power struggle

Editor’s note: UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit plan was vetoed in the House of Commons on Tuesday, with the largest vote against in Britain’s political history. Later, May managed to just survive a vote of a no-confidence. Yin Zhiguang, a columnist for Guancha.cn, comments in a post:

The fruitless party bickering over Brexit has long been irrelevant to that process; it is merely a disguise for the party conflict in the United Kingdom.

In fact, the moment when the referendum result was released on June 24, 2016 — when then prime minister David Cameron resigned and the almost unknown May succeeded him as both the head of government and the Conservative Party — marked the commencement of a new round of party politics, as the abnormal power handover reflected the split in the ruling party.

The Labour Party is also divided on Brexit, even if the leader Jeremy Corbyn has overcome an internal vote within the party initiated by members opposing Brexit.

To some extent, Brexit has become an excuse for power struggles within parties. The real power that can steer the progress of Brexit is always parties, or even small factions within parties. Although all sides claim they are putting the “people” first, their party conflict and factional infighting have pulled the nation to a worst-case scenario no-deal Brexit.

The most likely result is the May administration will postpone the Brexit deadline, which is March 29 now, and continue to talk with the European Union on a deal more favorable to Britain, which in itself is almost impossible. But the other fallout, if not the true purpose, of protracting the deadline is to give the Conservative Party more time to find a proper successor so as to prepare for the General Election in 2020.