How 2019 will rank as one of the most politically turbulent years since the war
From a General Election to parliamentary deadlock, the last 12 months have seen the UK lurch from crisis to crisis… and Brexit Part Two is just around the corner.
EXASPERATING. Startling. Confusing. Exhausting.
2019 will be forever remembered as the year of Brexit, when the psychodrama over Britain’s future dominated political life at Westminster and beyond.
As the divide between Leave and Remain deepened, politics began to splinter further.
The first half of the year was dramatic enough with 11 MPS, including Labour’s Chuka Umunna and the Tories’ Anna Soubry jumping ship to form The Independent Group, which would later become Change UK. Mr Umunna would eventually join the Liberal Democrats.
Labour’s Ian Austin quit the party, demoralised by its lack of grip on tackling anti-semitism; an issue that would dog Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership up to its last days.
At Westminster, Theresa May’s authority was already crumbling by the time she suffered the humiliation of a Commons defeat by 230 votes; the largest for a century.
Although the Tory Government survived a subsequent no-confidence vote, the game seemed up.
The Remain Alliance slowly began to flex its parliamentary muscles and take control of the Commons agenda as what it regarded as the abyss of a hard Brexit grew ever nearer.
Brussels dug in its heels. Michel Barnier, the EU’S chief negotiator, made clear on whether the bloc would ever renegotiate the UK-EU deal or change the backstop the answer was the same; an emphatic Non.
By spring the Government was losing more and more votes; Mrs May’s declaration of Brexit by March 29 fell by the wayside as did any attempt to leave the EU without a deal.
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of London to call for a People’s Vote. An online petition to revoke Article 50 reached five million and then six million. Support for the pro-eu Liberal Democrats began to creep up.
More indicative votes were held but failed to be passed. Mrs May’s deal was defeated for a third time. An attempt at a Conservative-labour compromise not surprisingly failed. The zombie Parliament, deadlocked, shuffled on.
Another push by the Remain Alliance forced the PM to agree an October 31 extension. On cue, Nigel Farage reappeared to announce he was leading a new party, the Brexit Party.
All the while a head of steam was building within Tory ranks to oust the beleaguered Mrs May. The final shove came at an intense meeting of the backbench 1922 Committee following a disastrous performance at the local elections in England, when the Tories lost more than 1,300 councillors. Boris Johnson swiftly threw his hat in the ring.
As if things were not dramatic enough, Donald Trump arrived for a State visit, promising a “phenomenal” post-brexit trade deal and insisting everything, including the NHS, would be on the table; a tune he would later change. But he once more made clear his preference for Mr Johnson’s candidacy.
As the hustings got under way the contest became a straight battle between the out-and-out Brexiter Mr Johnson and the Remainer-turned-brexiter Jeremy Hunt. Given it was the party membership who had the final say, the result never seemed in doubt. The Old Etonian won two to one.
After Mrs May gave her teary departure in Downing Street, Mr Johnson formed his new Brexiter Government with former Leave campaign chief Dominic Cummings heading the backroom team.
By now Jo Swinson, at 39, had become the Libdems’ first female leader. A poll rating of 20 per cent began to give them hope of a dramatic breakthrough.
Over summer, Mr Johnson visited France’s Emmanuel Macron, insisting the Brexit impasse could be broken “with energy and creativity” and a new deal could be sealed by Hallowe’en.
Then in late August the PM dropped his political bombshell – he asked the Queen to suspend Parliament until October 14. Outrage followed from political opponents. Demonstrations were held. Things began to hot up considerably.
After he lost his Commons majority thanks to another Tory defection, a bill to block a no-deal was passed with the help of Conservative rebels. Some 21, including senior figures such as Dominic Grieve, Ken Clarke and David Gauke, were sacked. Amber Rudd later resigned in sympathy.
The PM suffered a personal blow when his brother Jo left Government, saying he was “torn between family and the national interest”.
After a second attempt to call a snap election failed, Parliament was prorogued amid unprecedented protests in the Commons with some Opposition MPS holding up signs saying “silenced”.
The drama then moved up a gear. Three judges at Scotland’s highest civil court ruled the Government’s prorogation of Westminster was unlawful.
In Bournemouth at the Libdem conference, the party voted to back a policy to revoke Brexit if it won a General Election.
A week later as Labour held its annual conference in Brighton, the UK Supreme Court made its bombshell announcement – it agreed with the Court of Session. A day later MPS were back at Westminster for one of the worst-tempered days in living memory.
Mr Johnson branded the law blocking a no-deal Brexit as the “surrender bill”, which caused Opposition MPS to urge him to tone down his language given the threats against MPS. He denounced the attack as “humbug”, later insisting his comments had been misconstrued.
As the Tories held their conference, it was overshadowed by claims the PM had had an affair with US model-turned-businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri. He continued to deny any conflict of interest.
Pressure mounted on Mr Corbyn to call a no-confidence vote in the Government, but the reality was he did not have the numbers to succeed.
Mr Johnson, who had repeatedly declared Britain would leave the EU on October 31 “no ifs, no buts,” agreed to send a letter to Brussels seeking an extension required under the Benn Act.
Yet shortly after Parliament was prorogued again to bring in a Queen’s Speech, the UK and EU agreed an historic deal – without the notorious backstop but creating a customs border down the Irish Sea. Feeling betrayed, the Democratic Unionists insisted they could not support the new deal.
A special Saturday sitting of the Commons was held to discuss it. The extension letter to Brussels was sent but not signed. Within days MPS finally passed the Brexit bill by a majority of 30 but failed to agree a timetable.
After EU leaders agreed to push back the Brexit deadline again to January 31, a
Three judges at Scotland’s highest civil court ruled the Government’s prorogation of Westminster was unlawful
motion to call a General Election was finally passed.
As Parliament was dissolved Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson resigned, saying he wanted to start a new chapter in his life but later would admit that the hostility he had received within the party had helped him make his mind up to leave.
The campaign was dominated by the NHS and Brexit.
Mr Corbyn made great play of the release of unredacted documents that he insisted showed the NHS would be up for sale in a post-brexit trade deal with America. Mr Trump, visiting the UK for a Nato summit, strenuously denied the claim, but, seemingly to help his British host, abandoned a planned press conference and quickly returned home. Front page pictures of a boy lying on a hospital floor for hours on end awaiting treatment gave Mr Johnson his most uncomfortable moment as he pocketed the mobile phone of a TV reporter trying to get him to comment on it.
But the PM was more comfortable with pictures of him bulldozing a Styrofoam wall with the words Get
Brexit Done, his campaign slogan, emblazoned on the machine.
While the Tory manifesto was light on detail, Labour’s was bulging with it. Promises even continued after the latter’s publication with a pledge to spend almost £60 billion to compensate the Waspi women for changes to their state pensions.
In Scotland, the campaign was once again dominated by the constitutional question with Mr Johnson making clear there were “no circumstances” in which he would facilitate a second independence referendum – no matter how many seats the SNP won.
In the end, it seemed a combination of questions about Mr Corbyn’s leadership, Labour’s “confetti” of manifesto promises and Mr Johnson’s clear commitment to “get Brexit done” had helped the Tories smash through Labour’s “red wall” in northern England to secure an 80-seat majority.
Mr Corbyn announced he would stand down, thus sparking a leadership contest.
While Ms Swinson, having once declared herself to be her party’s candidate for Prime Minister, saw her party lose one seat to 11, while she failed to retain her own East Dunbartonshire seat.
Mr Johnson, meanwhile, was on a political high. The new Queen’s Speech contained a law to make sure the trade deal with the EU would not go beyond December 2020 and MPS passed the first stage of the new Brexit bill with a majority of 124. How times had changed.
The political drama, the intricacies and the long-term impact of the Brexit debate on life across the UK means that 2019 will go down in history as the most politically turbulent year since the Second World War.
But, there is, of course, 2020 and
Brexit Part Two to come.
The campaign was dominated by the NHS and Brexit