Mount Brexit threatens to blow as May calls cabinet to Chequers

Tectonic plates are grinding ominously underneath a 16th-century manor house in Buckinghamshire. As Theresa May locks her cabinet away at Chequers on Thursday to agree an escape plan, the sharp uptick in seismic activity suggests Mount Brexit may be about to blow.

Every day brings a new tremor. First it was David Davis warning of “Mad Max dystopia” if colleagues light a bonfire of EU red tape. Then the proponents of this scorched earth approach fired back a “ransom note” of new demands. Now the optimistically-named Department for Exiting the EU has appeared to suggest it would rather remain in indefinite purgatory than commit to an end date for transition out of the bloc (for now).

With steam venting from every crack, the temptation is to focus on the reaction of the Brexiters for signs of terminal meltdown. It is true that almost everything promised by leavers during the referendum has evaporated in recent days – no escape from EU rules, little or no say over new ones, no end date in sight for what Jacob Rees-Mogg has called “vassal state” status during transition.

For all the huffing and puffing, however, there is little else that Rees-Mogg and fellow members of the European Research Group can do but stand by the prime minister’s side during this tumultuous time. Although 62 backbenchers signed the letter calling on her to stick to the principles of Brexit, their bigger worry is that it won’t happen at all if they don’t give May some room for manoeuvre. A closer reading of their demands reveals only the desire to preserve her “ability to change laws and rules once we leave” - a formulation not that far removed from the “managed divergence” the prime minister is planning to try to sell to an even more sceptical audience in Brussels.

Controlled outgassing at Chequers may not be enough to reduce pressure from elsewhere in the fractured Conservative party. Tory remainers led by Ken Clarke and Anna Soubry will attempt to force a further softening of the government’s already viscous Brexit strategy in two weeks’ time by calling for Britain to stay in a customs union with the EU. The second of their two amendments to the upcoming trade bill threatens to explode spectacularly if they can garner enough support.

Source: theguardian