The time for choosing is fast approaching for Theresa May. Soon she must make a decision that will define her premiership and her country’s future. The past few days have shown how hard, if not impossible, it will be for her to keep her entire cabinet on board with whatever EU deal she signs. It is imperative that she now picks what kind of Brexit she wants. But doing so will risk alienating — or even losing — various cabinet members. She has been trying to blur the lines for months, but as one of those closely involved in this drama warns: ‘She can’t fudge this forever.’ Another participant in the struggle says: ‘She’s got to decide who she wants sitting round the cabinet table.’
Mrs May had planned to reveal the next part of her Brexit plan in her speech in Florence, but the political tussle started long before she left for Italy. We have seen the Foreign Secretary defying his boss, then being attacked by the Home Secretary, while Brexiteer cabinet ministers were forced to deny that they had agreed to resign en masse. Yet these are merely the opening skirmishes in the latest battle of the Tories’ 50-odd-year civil war over Europe. The Brexit referendum did not settle this question; it just redefined it. This battle now threatens to be the bloodiest.
The cabinet is split between those who want to stay as close as possible to the EU single market, copying regulations and transposing European Court judgments where necessary, and those who want to chart a more independent course and go for a free-trade agreement with the EU based on the one recently struck by Canada. A basic (and reasonable) question hangs in the air: what does Britain want? Yet the government has managed three rounds of Brexit talks with the EU without saying which is its preferred option.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in