Will Scottish Tories be filleted and gutted for backing May?

The Prime Minister has shown a level of duplicity throughout the lengthy Brexit process, argues Brian Monteith

There can be little doubt that the Prime Minister’s Draft Withdrawal Agreement and its accompanying Political Declaration is going to struggle to gain the approval of parliament. If only she had shown such chutzpah and doggedness when negotiating with those EU leaders as she has in fielding questions during statements and interviews she might not be in the precarious position she is now.

Tragically, she has surrendered so many compromises, so many concessions, that practically everyone is against her proposals. Two genuine problems stare MPS in the face – the first is that if they read the 500+ pages of the Draft Withdrawal Agreement and the sevenpage Draft Political Declaration they will see the Prime Minister’s soundbites are torpedoed by the detail.

Her claims the UK will leave the Single Market, the Customs Union and ECJ jurisdiction are simply not true. For while some of the arrangements that replicate the UK’S current subservience or membership to these institutions are indeed time limited they are underpinned by the fact that if the supposed Irish border problem is not resolved to the EU’S satisfaction by the end of 2020 then the backstop kicks in that keeps the UK locked into those same arrangements in perpetuity.

Given there is no incentive for the EU to come to an agreement when the backstop would be preferable to having a deal, because it gives EU members who will write our laws unfettered access to UK markets and prevents the UK from establishing the free trade agreements that could see its economy pull away from the lowgrowth EU, then it is difficult not to conclude we would be trapped. Yet on and on the Prime Minister goes, stating in robotic fashion that we will have control of our money, our laws and our borders when nothing could be further from the truth.

This brings us to the second problem – trust. Or lack of it. The Prime Minister is not only leaving herself open to the charge of being a serial liar about what her proposals mean, she has also demonstrated a level of duplicity not seen since the Molotovribbentrop Pact between Nazi Germany and Communist Russia.

She has worked in league with civil servants to undermine both Cabinet ministers David Davis and Liam Fox who had directed plans be drawn up to leave the Customs Union and Single Market and formulate a Canadastyle trade agreement. The result was her Chequers plan sprung on the Cabinet with the ridiculous threat there would be no transport provided if anyone resigned.

We can now see that the same behindthescenes trickery was played out on Dominic Raab, the second DEXEU Secretary of State, who had to be briefed by the Prime Minister as she had let lead civil servant Olly Robbins go far, far further than Raab had countenanced.

So, we have a Prime Minister who is either in utter denial about what her proposals mean and will lead to, or has become the greatest charlatan of our age simply to get her way..

With the parliament’s approval now the key battlefield – not withstanding the likelihood of a Conservative backbench move to noconfidence the Prime Minister that could make it all academic – every vote counts.

Labour may yet find a way to back the Prime Minister by allowing enough of its number to “rebel” against the whip to see that May wins – if only because relying on Labour support will screw up the Tory party so much it will break into