Stop giving mixed messages on Brexit
In precisely one week, Theresa May will travel to the European Council summit in Brussels, where it will be decided whether “sufficient progress” has been made in Brexit talks to allow both sides to move on to discussing a future trade deal. This is already problematic enough, for it is clear that the very arbiters of this “progress” (the EU’S leaders) are themselves the cause of the talks stalling. As Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, made clear yesterday before the Commons Treasury select committee, Britain has “made the running” in negotiations. “People in this country,” he suggested, “are finding it increasingly difficult to understand why we can’t start talking about the substance of our future relationship.” He noted, rightly, that the result of any stalling was “a shared problem”, as a “no deal” scenario would have a significant impact on Continental exporters, too. Why, then, are the leaders of France and Germany behaving so mulishly, so irrationally?
Perhaps the answer can be found closer to home. Here, in the space of 24 hours, the Deputy Prime Minister, Damian Green, declared that he would vote Remain if the referendum were held today, Mr Hammond insisted that he will not yet allocate money for the “no deal” scenario he suggests is increasingly likely, and Theresa May herself, in an uncomfortable radio interview, refused to say whether she would now vote for Brexit, having supported Remain last June. So some 16 months after the referendum, Britain’s three most senior political figures either publicly disavow Brexit, or appear not to have decided what they want to do with it. Faced with this, the apparently irrational strategy of Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron begins to make sense. When your opponent appears in disarray, you do not let up the attack. Instead, you press for maximum advantage. In Berlin and Paris, Brexit negotiators look out across the Channel and think they see a trinity of timidity. They must be proved wrong.
One way forward may be for the Prime Minister to take some reinforcements to next week’s crucial summit. David Cameron happily faced the sceptical faces of European leaders bolstered by the wisdom of William Hague or the tactical mischief of George Osborne. Why should the Prime Minister not take a willing ally of her own, one who has no problems advocating Brexit and the benefits it can bring this country? After all, it’s not unusual for foreign secretaries to attend foreign summits.