PM is deluded if she thinks Labour will save her skin
Assuming the PM survives the no-confidence vote Jeremy Corbyn has called in her Government (and she probably will), there is speculation that she will try to cut a deal with Labour as part of her quest to rescue her Withdrawal Agreement through cross-party cooperation. On the face of it, there are grounds for her to hope. Whatever Corbyn might have said yesterday, a great deal of her agreement was palatable to the Labour leadership, including ending freedom of movement.
Moreover, the backstop, keeping the whole of the UK inside some form of customs arrangement until a solution can be found for the Northern Irish border, is barely a stone’s throw away from Labour’s preference for a permanent customs union.
Perhaps, then, Corbyn might be tempted to try to secure the latter concession from the PM, in a way that makes him look statesmanlike? By helping to steer Britain away from a no deal that it is ill-prepared for, he could signal to the electorate that Labour is not merely a protest movement, and is more decisive on Brexit than this self-combusting Tory Government.
The problem is Corbyn’s ideal of a customs union – tailored to the needs and demands of Great Britain – is not on offer from the EU. In any case, statesmanship is not in Corbyn’s DNA. There is, instead, a high risk that the Labour leader will lead Mrs May up the garden path. He may lure her into bending over backwards to meet Labour conditions, only to reject her proposal at the last minute, when it inevitably falls short of his unrealistic demands.
A cynic might say that it is a clever way for Corbyn to run down the clock and increase the likelihood of not only a no-deal exit (which Eurosceptic Corbyn secretly craves), but also a no-deal exit botched by an unprepared Tory PM, which could help to propel Corbyn into No 10.
After all, Corbyn’s overriding aim is to win power. Everything else – Brexit, parliamentary procedure, party democracy – is of secondary importance compared with the prospect of being handed those precious keys to government. Centrist Labour MPS enter politics with a reasonable expectation of office one day. Those on the hard-left, like Corbyn, were so isolated from the mainstream of their party that they never seriously considered the prospect of power. Now that he finds himself unexpectedly on the cusp of it, he will do anything to avoid this opportunity slipping from his fingers.
Perhaps Mrs May thinks she would have more luck exploiting Labour’s lack of discipline by reaching out to the party’s backbenchers? A significant number are Remainers who preside over Leave-voting seats and are nervous about a second referendum. The likes of Yvette Cooper and Stephen Kinnock have expressed support for a Norway-style deal, and may well be open to backing a softer Brexit proposal. The PM could also try to gather support for a softer deal via trade union bosses such as Len Mccluskey. He has criticised the idea of a second referendum.
But Mrs May has proved deaf to demands for such cross-party cooperation over the past two and a half years. Only in the last few days have we heard reports of desperate last-minute phone calls to the likes of Mr Mccluskey. Given her tin ear and lack of strategic agility, it is hard to see how she can now forge the kind of meaningful alliance with the Opposition that could ultimately save her skin.