Twelve Days of Brexit – how our elected representatives made a dog’s breakfast of EU withdrawal
HOW did we get here? How did we end up with a Government actively planning to put 3,500 troops on the streets and ports of Britain to guard against social unrest in an entirely self-inflicted national crisis? By what political process did we end up only weeks away from a chaotic departure from the European Union that even Brexiters realise will be a disaster? What happened to leadership? Parliament? The civil service? The courts?
Iain Macwhirter finds 12 key dates that might help us understand January 9: Theresa May reshuffles her Cabinet. This should have been the moment when she confronted the die-hard eurosceptics – her verbally incontinent Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and the irresponsibly lazy Brexit Secretary David Davies. But she bottled it. Not so much a “night of the long knives, as a night of the blunt stiletto” as the Conservative-leaning Daily Telegraph put it.
She remained essentially a prisoner of the hard Brexiteers for the next year. May persevered in Brussels with their unachievable red lines: For Britain to have “frictionfree” access to the European Single Market without being a member of it; refusing to contemplate continuing payments to EU programmes or free movement of labour, or a role for the European Court of Justice. February 27: In an act of defiance, the Scottish Government publishes its Continuity Bill calling for the powers repatriated from Brussels to remain as responsibilities of Holyrood. It was passed overwhelmingly by MSPs. The fundamental issue was consent. The Scottish Government wanted assurances that, under the Sewel Convention, Westminster should continue to require Holyrood’s agreement to any changes that cut across its powers.
The Prime Minister wasn’t having any of it, and took the Scottish Government to the Supreme Court. Thereafter, the nations and regions of the UK were excluded from any meaningful participation on the Brexit process.
March 23: Jeremy Corbyn sacks shadow Northern Ireland secretary Owen Smith for arguing for a second referendum on the
EU. This should have been confirmation that Labour, at least under Jeremy Corbyn, was and is a pro-Brexit party. Pro-Europeans have been in denial over this throughout the year.
April 18: Peers vote by 348 to 225 for the UK to remain in the Customs Union. With Scotland silenced and Labour backing Brexit, it was left to the unelected House of Lords to offer some opposition to the Brexit bulldozer, peers infuriating the PM by voting to remove the arbitrary March 29 exit date from the EU Withdrawal Bill.
That would at least have ended he cliff edge we face now.
May 22: Undeterred, the Lords then vote for MPs to be allowed to consider the Norway option of remaining in the EEA and single market. These motions were reversed in the Commons as valuable time was lost.
Labour remained unwilling to accept the EEA and free movement.
June 20: The only significant Lords amendment still standing is the requirement for MPs to be given a “meaningful vote” on the outcome of the Government’s withdrawal agreement. This was fiercely resisted by the Government and only accepted after a backbench rebellion. May’s view was that under her prerogative powers, she should negotiate with Brussels, not Parliament. But, as a compromise, MPs have the right to a vote on any deal by January 21.
July 6: The Cabinet votes for May’s Chequers deal. This was the distillation of crisis talks at the Prime Minister’s country mansion and included proposals for the UK to agree a “common rule book” on trade with the single market, plus a highly complex arrangement whereby Britain would collect customs duties on behalf of the European Union.
Both Boris Johnson and David Davis voted for the Chequers deal in Cabinet. Within the next 48 hours both had resigned, with Johnson telling Parliament Brexit was being
“suffocated in a fog of self doubt”.
The EU negotiator, Michel Barnier, rejected any proposal for Britain to collect customs duties after Brexit as illegal under EU law.
August 23: The Government ramps up project fear by releasing the first of a series of technical papers on preparation for a no-deal Brexit. These included proposals for the army to guarantee supplies of food, medicine and fuel.
The Government wasn’t seriously planning for no deal, but the mere fact of announcing contingency measures made the unthinkable thinkable.
September 20: May is humiliated – not for the first time – at the EU summit in Salzburg as her Chequers proposal is rejected outright by the EU. French president Emmanuel Macron accuses her of “lying”. The Ireland backstop agreement, which had been on the table since December 2017, turned out to be the real dealbreaker. Brussels insisted it had to be permanent until a new trade agreement is signed.
October 20: 700,000 people march in London for a People’s Vote – the biggest demonstration in the city since the Iraq war. At its conference the previous month, Labour had approved a motion that allowed for a possible referendum if there is no deal and no General Election.
But there was confusion over whether or not Remain would be on the ballot. John McDonnell initially says no. Keir Starmer says yes. The compromise is that “all options” would be considered.
November 22: An angry House of Commons debates Theresa May’s 585-page Withdrawal Treaty agreed with Brussels. Under the new Irish backstop, Britain would remain in a customs union with the EU, and Northern Ireland would be in regulatory alignment with the European Single Market.
The accompanying Political Declaration outlined the future trade deal in the vaguest possible terms.
Jacob Rees-Mogg and Boris Johnston condemn the Withdrawal Agreement as a capitulation to Brussels and a recipe for “vassalage”. The second Brexit Secretary, Dominic Raab, resigns – followed by six other ministers.
Jeremy Corbyn tells the Commons the Withdrawal Deal is “the worst of all possible worlds: no say on the rules and no certainty for the future”.
December 10: Michael Gove tells the Today programme the Government is determined to put the Withdrawal Agreement to the “meaningful vote” in Parliament. Two hours later, Theresa May cancels it after being told by her party whips that up to 100 MPs Tory MPs were likely to vote against.
Corbyn condemns her actions as “demeaning”, but he fails to move a confidence motion against the Government. May survives a Tory no-confidence vote but only after agreeing not to lead the party into the next General Election.
And so here we are, with Parliament deadlocked, Theresa May discredited, Brussels disgusted, the country divided and the future uncertain. The abiding theme: abdication of responsibility.
The Brexit Cabinet ministers left their posts without coming up with any credible plan B; the Commons failed to take a lead from the Lords when it proposed concrete solutions like Norway Plus; Labour refused to come up with any coherent alternative to May’s deal and equivocated over a repeat referendum. The PM stuck doggedly to a negotiation stance that was simply an abdication from reality. Everyone has been hiding in plain sight.
But reality will finally dawn on March 29 when Article 50 kicks in and Britain is kicked out of the EU – an appointment with destiny for which Britain is woefully unprepared.
The Government wasn’t seriously planning for no deal, but the mere fact of announcing contingency measures made the unthinkable thinkable