May is in denial
DURING the general election campaign, Theresa May obviously hoped that, when June 9 dawned, she would be leading a Conservative government with an increased majority and would be able to claim a mandate for the version of Brexit she always intended.
When June 9 actually dawned, however, she had achieved neither of these things. Quite the reverse, in fact. Not only had she lost her majority; she had also failed to win her Brexit mandate. May’s current problem is that she has not yet properly come to terms with either of these outcomes.
From the liberal side of politics it looks as if May is trading her party’s long-term claims to have modernised in favour of short-term survival. However, May has won no political or moral right to put the Northern Ireland peace process at risk, nor to weaken the UK’s relations with the Irish republic and no right to continue to pursue an illiberal Brexit at the country’s expense.
That, though, is the meaning of the new paper on EU citizens’ rights after Brexit. This is far from being the “fair and serious” set of proposals that May again claimed in the Commons.
Instead this plan is full of hoops and hurdles that are at odds with the generous spirit that ministers say they wish to promote. The new plans are in fact barely any different from existing arrangements for migrants with leave to remain.
They are needlessly costly, require a fresh application, do not offer guarantees about family union, and they fall short of what the EU27 have proposed. They are adamant the European court of justice will not have jurisdiction.
In short, May is acting as if nothing has changed. That is why right-wing Tory MPs, desperate to prevent concessions, rallied behind her in the Commons on Monday. Yet in the country things have changed and are changing. The public has tired of austerity. It is more anxious about Brexit. May, though, will not change unless she is forced to. Opposition parties and pro-European Tories must make that happen. They have the power. It is time for them to use it.