BREXIT AND THE FALL OF THERESA MAY
The long-awaited resignation of the British Prime Minister, Theresa May finally came on 7th June 2019 when the beleaguered premier dramatically announced her resignation thereby brining to an end her political career as the most unpopular and unsuccessful prime minister in recent British history. Theresa May’s shoddy handling of the rather intricate Brexit negotiation with the European Union (EU) leaders at Brussels and its fallout had clearly portrayed her as a lame duck leader in the eyes of the British people and which eventually swept her out of power like her predecessor David Cameron who naively called for the Brexit referendum in
2016 which equally dealt a devastating blow to his own political career.
The visibly shaken and subdued May, was close to tears as she acknowledged her abysmal and monumental failure to secure Brexit deal for her country which in her own words “I love so much” when she addressed the British people recently at 10 Downing Street.
History will certainly remember the outgoing prime minister as a weakling, unimaginative, and uninspiring leader who lacked the authority and charisma to control her government and the Conservative Party at a critical moment in British history. She had literally abandoned the ship midstream.
Needless to emphasize the point that the current Brexit saga is the most contentious and complicated political issue ever witnessed by the British people in recent times even as the quagmire has terribly polarized the over 60 million Britons almost irredeemably along political divide.
Meanwhile, intense campaigns are already underway for the potential successor to May within the terribly battered and divided governing Conservative Party. About 10 contenders are vying for the premiership position but only a few could be considered as serious. Among them is the flamboyant and loquacious former British Foreign Secretary and hardline Brexiteer, Boris Johnson who is clearly a front runner in the race and had already marshalled out his plans to finally break the ever lingering Brexit jinx if he emerges as the next British prime minister. He told the British people recently that Britain would insist on a fresh negotiation with the EU on “a new Brexit deal” and that Britain must leave the EU by the new departure date which is October 2019 “with or without a deal”.
However, British political watchers had warned that “no deal scenario” would certainly cause catastrophic consequences to the British economy and her people. Members of the governing Conservative Party who are expected to choose their new leader and subsequently the next prime minister by the end of July 2019 will consider all options available to them in the current extremely dire and unpredictable situation.
Nonetheless, whoever that eventually emerges as the next Conservative leader and prime minister will certainly have an uphill task of pulling Britain out of her present precarious situation that had already swept out two former prime ministers within a period of three years.
The next British prime minister therefore must be a highly skilled and astute negotiator who will be able to find urgent solution to the seemingly intractable Brexit imbroglio and secure a decent and honourable deal for the terribly confused and dejected Britons and finally bring to a close one of the darkest periods in modern British history.