Robert Peston Robert Peston

Not even God knows what happens to Brexit now

After yesterday’s historic negotiations between EU leaders here in Brussels – while Theresa May was out of the room – here is what we now know about Brexit.

We are not leaving the EU on 29 March 2019, the Brexit day that was supposedly set in stone.

We may yet leave on 22 May this year, but only if next week MPs finally – at a third time of asking, and probably on Tuesday – vote for Theresa May’s widely derided Brexit plan.

We could leave without a Brexit deal on the new Brexit day, 12 April – if the PM’s vote is lost.

Or we could leave at an undetermined future date with a different Brexit plan, or hold a referendum, or even revoke our decision to leave if by 12 April MPs coalesce around some other route than a no-deal Brexit in just the next three weeks, and if they are prepared for the UK to participate in European Parliamentary elections the following week.

All clear to you about what’s going to happen?

No of course not.

What was settled by Macron, Merkel, Tusk et al was the ultimate diplomatic humiliation for the UK.

Because more than 1000 days after the UK voted to leave the UK, we are in practice very little nearer to knowing what that vote actually means.

If I were to call this a dog’s breakfast I would be insulting dog’s breakfasts. There may not be a pooch on the planet that would swallow this indignity.

But the prime minister has and we are. So what happens now?

Well, nobody knows – probably not even God. Because there are too many imponderables.

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