Against long odds and after months of wrangling, Britain's tortuous Brexit journey took a significant leap forward Wednesday when British Prime Minister Theresa May secured support for from her Cabinet for her draft divorce deal with the European Union.
Standing outside Downing Street, May announced that she had won the backing of her senior ministers after debate that had lasted five hours. “This is a decisive step which enables us to move on and finalise the deal in the days ahead,” she said.
Hours earlier, there had been talk that some mutinous members of her Cabinet might resign and that remained a possibility on Wednesday night. Even as the meeting drew to a close, rumours swirled in Westminster that May could face a vote of no-confidence from within the ranks of her own Conservative Party.
But on the steps of Downing Street, May acknowledged the debate had been difficult, and that decisions had not been taken lightly.
“I believe that what I owe to this country is to take decisions that are in the national interest. And I firmly believe, with my head and my heart, that this is a decision which is in the best interests of our entire United Kingdom,” she said.
Cabinet backing gives the Prime Minister crucial breathing space, but her troubles are far from over. May must now get the deal through the House of Commons, where her Conservative Party does not command a majority, and opponents smell blood.
The Conservative Party is deeply divided between hardline Brexit supporters and others who voted to remain in the EU, and Wednesday’s breakthrough is only the beginning of what is expected to be a protracted and painful political process.
Chief among hardliners’ concerns is that the agreement will tie the UK to the EU’s customs union and parts of the single market free-trade area for years to come, without any say in how the bloc is run.
The opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, laid into the PM’s deal. “After two years of bungled negotiations, from what we know of the government’s deal, it’s a failure in its own terms,” Corbyn said. It seems unthinkable that his party would support May’s deal when it comes to a vote.
Opponents of the deal take issue with the part of the agreement that deals with the border between Ireland, which remains in the EU, and Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK. Critics say the border agreement would, at least temporarily, tie the UK to the EU’s trading rules without a way out.
May must now attempt to secure the support of the Democratic Unionist Party, whose 10 MPs prop up her minority government. DUP leader Arlene Foster said in a statement on Wednesday that the party’s “desire for a deal will not be superseded by a willingness to accept any deal.”
But May insisted that she felt the draft withdrawal agreement was “the best that could be negotiated.” She also made it clear that if Brexit-supporting MPs in her own party conspired to kill the deal, they could end up destroying their ultimate goal of leaving the EU.
The choice, she said, was stark: “This deal, which delivers on the vote of the referendum, which brings us back control of our money, laws and borders, ends free movement, protects jobs, security and our union; or leave with no deal; or no Brexit at all.”
An emergency summit of the EU council – the 28 member states that make up the European Union – is likely to be called for November. At this summit, the member states will agree to the withdrawal text, allowing it to move to legislative chambers of both the EU and the UK.
Follow N1 via mobile apps for Android | iPhone/iPad | Windows| and social media on Twitter | Facebook.
