Brexit’s last best chance

It’s been even more humiliating second time round. The United Kingdom has again been reduced to asking the European Union for an extension to the Article 50 process. Once was bad enough but twice marks a profound failure of government and Parliament. It has left the EU deciding the country’s future.

In Westminster, there is no sign of a resolution to the Brexit impasse. Cross-party talks between Labour and the Tories continue. Sources close to those talks feel that a common position is unlikely to be found. A deal between the two parties would require that Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn both be prepared to split their parties. This seems unlikely.

When May met with the executive of the 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers on Monday, she went out of her way to reassure them that she knew how difficult a customs union would be for the party and stressed that she was looking at a customs arrangement instead. According to those present, May did not sound like a leader who was about to try to persuade her party to swallow a customs union.

Progress is also being hampered because MPs believe there’s now little chance of no deal. They think that Yvette Cooper’s law means the government can’t make no deal its objective and that the EU will never force it on the UK. Those MPs who don’t want no deal — 400 of them voted against it in the indicative votes — calculate that this makes it safe for them to carry on holding out for their perfect Brexit outcome rather than compromising. As one cabinet minister points out, if those who want a second referendum and those who are happy to leave without a deal won’t back any other option, it becomes very difficult to get a majority.