An agreement which pleases no one

The UK is heading for an outcome which may only satisfy the extremists of the Tory right and Ukip

TO the hardline Brexiteer, faith is all we need. Selfbelief can defeat the dark forces of reality. When experts

– of the type MP Michael Gove declared the public had had enough – warned that a Leave vote in 2016’s referendum would damage the UK economy, Eurosceptics sneered.

And when those schooled in constitutional law and international relations went on to warn that – once Leave had won – the UK would have few cards to play in the negotiation of our departure, those same rightwing ideologues were equally dismissive. The EU would give the UK precisely the deal it wanted, they said; there were – despite the overwhelming evidence that they were, at best, mistaken – no good reasons to doubt that we could enjoy a havecakeandeatcake Brexit.

Historians will, we believe, look back in horror at the way in which Brexiteers were able to lie and cheat on their way to victory before washing their hands of responsibility for the mess they have created.

Even now, the Tory right continues to place the blame for any Brexit downside on others: if only people would unite behind departure from the European Union, everything would be fine. Only the most gullible soul could believe that, now.

Yesterday, EU leaders rubberstamped a draft Brexit agreement with the UK. Inevitably, hard Brexiteers in the Tory ranks were unhappy. Former party leader Iain Duncan Smith spoke for his fellow hardliners when he said he would find it difficult to support the agreement as it stands, insisting that it cedes too much control to the EU.

Meanwhile, in the real world, both Prime Minister Theresa May and European Commission President Jeanclaude Juncker made it perfectly clear that the agreement on the table was not only the best one available, it was the only one.

The Prime Minister will now try to get parliamentary support for an agreement which stands to satisfy neither Leavers nor Remainers.

Given the likelihood of her failure in this quest, Mrs May will have to find some kind of “Plan B”. Whether this is possible seems doubtful.

As it stands, the agreement will probably be rejected by MPS, leading to a painful Nodeal Brexit. Growing calls for a People’s Vote – including the option to Remain – continue to be rejected by the Prime Minister. If Mrs May maintains this position, she should be fully aware that she is heading for an outcome that will please only the extremists of the Tory right and Ukip.