Week from hell: How Theresa May’s Panorama positivity turned to humiliation in Salzburg

A No 10 misunderstanding left EU leaders rejecting Chequers and the PM contemplating a no-deal

THERESA MAY began the week like a woman on the cusp of triumph.

Since Parliament’s return at the beginning of September, the narrative had been that her Chequers compromise was dead and that the hardline Brexiteers had won. That culminated in open plotting by members of the European Research Group and wild claims that the Prime Minister would face a leadership challenge within days.

Then, as quickly as they had filled, the sails of the Eurosceptics emptied. Their failure to produce a much touted alternative plan, combined with a row over Boris Johnson’s “suicide vest” comments and reports of a softening stance on the Continent, left the ERG seeming a “busted flush” and May poised to succeed.

On Monday, the BBC’S Panorama broadcast a Brexit special in which the PM confidently made clear that it was her deal or no deal. Olly Robbins, her chief Brexit adviser, meanwhile, declared Chequers “a game changer”.

As the Salzburg summit approached, the mood was upbeat. There was no expectation of a major breakthrough, but the EU would go easy on Mrs May – protecting her in the run up to Conservative Party Conference. “Warm words” would be said about Chequers and the need for compromise, before getting down to the nitty gritty at a formal EU summit in October.

Instead, a fateful misunderstanding appears to have taken hold of Downing Street, and the Prime Minister left Salzburg with a no-deal Brexit looking more likely than ever.

While EU leaders are adamant that none of what they said was new, the reaction to Mrs May’s efforts in Salzburg was harsher than expected. Indeed, it was a deliberate message. This, they believe, was a fair response to the Prime Minister’s woeful misjudgement of the mood.

Mrs May got several things wrong in Austria. She wrote a column for the German newspaper Die Welt that was seen as uncompromising and not in keeping with the European leaders’ tone of accommodation and calls for flexibility. Then, after four long hours spent debating migration – the original purpose of the summit – Europe’s leaders settled in to hear the Prime Minister’s speech. She began by reading aloud the very op-ed that had already been examined in great detail and found wanting.

If that soured the mood, it was her actions the following morning that led her EU counterparts to snap.

At a post-breakfast coffee with Leo Varadkar, the Irish Taoiseach, Mrs May admitted that she did not believe a solution could be found to the Irish border problem by October.

When news of that meeting spread, the reaction was instant. President Emmanuel Macron, of France – who was already pushing for a harder line to be taken – took the initiative, shifting the mood completely and tearing up plans to announce an extraordinary summit in November to clinch the Brexit deal. What followed were a series of damaging press conferences, with Europe’s leaders tearing into the Chequers plan and Britain’s politicians.

Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, declared that the plan “will not work”, while Mr Macron talked of Brexiteers being “liars” who “predicted easy solutions” before walking away. Mrs May was left to After a confident interview with Nick Robinson on

Panorama, top, Theresa May was met with a harsh reaction from the EU in Salzburg defend her plan and insist that Chequers was both alive and remained the only viable option.

The conditions for such a backlash, however, were created over the summer.

The Prime Minister and her team have, almost from the beginning, pursued a divide-and-conquer strategy with the EU, believing Michel Barnier and the European Commission to be too theocratic in their dedication to the “acquis” of European law in a way that national leaders were not.

Much time and effort was spent by senior Cabinet members and the Prime Minister on a diplomatic tour of the EU. There, they received polite welcomes and assurances that the EU27 wanted a deal.

But these assurances were then over-interpreted as signs of fractures in the EU’S unity or a softening in their stance, and overspun as such – much to the irritation of the EU. One French official dismissed apparently friendly words from Mr Macron as “mere generalities”.

Most glaringly, Britain seems to have been sucked into Viktor Orban’s power games, to little reward. In the Hungarian Prime Minister’s battle with the Mr Macron over the direction of Europe, Brexit is just another way of defining himself against the French president. Mr Orban was said to be as “meek as a child” at the summit, despite signalling his support for a Brexit deal.

Nor did the decision to pursue an alliance with a leader who is rapidly becoming a pariah endear Britain to Europe’s decision makers. And all for a man who lacks the diplomatic clout to make a difference.

The misreading of European politeness may be why Downing Street was willing to ignore a clear and direct warning from Mr Barnier to Dominic Raab, the Brexit Secretary, on Sept 6 that central elements of the Chequers proposals were not viable.

Mr Barnier told Mr Raab that the common rule-book plan for regulations was insufficient, and that the dual-tariff customs proposal was being “very firmly rejected”.

But while the EU repeatedly trashed Chequers, Downing Street and Mrs May clung on to it.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph after that meeting, a UK source said: “The hope is that the EU might at least keep the idea on life support”, although accepting that repeated attacks on the idea, which has been dismissed as “no more likely to exist than a unicorn”, had strained its credibility.

An EU source close to the negotiation was emphatic, however. “There will be no unicorns in the future framework declaration.”

All of which means that the “game changer” line from Mr Robbins, delivered in such a public way, has left him exposed and battered, with many critics questioning how the Prime Minister could have headed to Salzburg so badly prepared.

But the idea that the Civil Service has failed to apprise Mrs May fully of Europe’s objections to her Chequers plan was described by one senior civil servant as “complete nonsense”.

“There is a bunker mentality in Downing Street, and Olly might be partly responsible for that, but the idea that there has not been clear, unequivocal advice to No 10 about Europe’s attitude to Chequers is complete nonsense.

“Truth has been spoken unto power.”

‘Instead, a fateful misunderstanding appears to have taken hold of Downing Street’