Theresa May is running out of time to get the Brexit deal done

Theresa May has done a masterful job of kicking the Brexit can down the road, but it seems the she’s about to run out of options.

Theresa May has done a masterful job of kicking the Brexit can down the road, but it seems the she’s about to run out of road.

The Prime Minister yesterday withdrew a planned vote on her Brexit deal from the House of Commons when it became obvious it was going to be rejected by, in her words “a significant margin.’’

She will now traipse back off to Brussels once again and beg for help from the EU, despite the European Council president Donald Tusk saying he would not renegotiate.

The only thing the PM has on her side is that Brussels doesn’t want a no-deal Brexit any more than she does.

The prime minister is just about out of time, and even she conceded yesterday that the longer the matter was delayed, the more likely an “accidental no-deal’’ Brexit was.

A no-deal would see the UK crash out of the EU without any agreement on customs, taxes … or anything really. They would revert back to World Trade Organisation rules. The health minister has already warned there may have to be rationing of medicines, or charter flights put on to bring vital medications in.

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May making a statement in the House of Commons in London. Picture: AFP

Down near the port of Dover, the Kent council is warning of chaos, with traffic jams stretching for 20 kilometres and seven hours, and a new truck holding facility capable of holding up to 7000 trucks at a time being developed.

The financial impact, in the short term at least, would be disastrous, according to the Bank of

England, which says house prices could fall by 30 per cent, unemployment could rise from 4.1 per cent to about 7.5 per cent, and inflation could hit 6.5 per cent. Brexiteers and some economists dismiss the analysis as a fear campaign.

Negotiating Britain’s divorce from the EU after a 40-year, sometimes unhappy marriage, has proven hellishly difficult, if not downright impossible, for the Government, with the EU determined not to make it easy lest other restless member nations follow suit.

Anti-Brexit demonstrators protest outside parliament with a giant "Vote Down Brexit" spelled out in illuminated letters, as Theresa May answered questions in the House. Picture: AFP

There are suggestions of a no-confidence vote in the prime minister, a second referendum, or even a snap election. No-one knows if any of these routes are viable, because the situation is, as Jeremy Corbyn, said, unprecedented. Put simply, everyone is making it up as they go along.

Former prime minister David Cameron called the Brexit referendum, held in 2016, because he said the issue had been “poisoning’’ British politics for years.

While he may have been trying to end the Tory civil war, he started one among the British people, with the country fiercely divided about the best way forward.

Almost 17.5 million people voted in the referendum and voted 52 to 48 per cent to leave.

Cameron, who campaigned to Remain, promptly quit. Another Remainer, Theresa May, took the Tory party leadership and the prime ministership — but the price she had to pay was delivering the seemingly impossible — a deal to get the UK out of the EU.

Pro Brexit protesters demonstrate with placards outside the Houses of Parliament, Westminster. Picture: Getty

Now, an army of Brexiteers are lining up for her job — Boris Johnson, sporting a smart new haircut, David Davis, Amber Rudd, Sajid Javid, Andrea Leadsom, Michael Gove, Domini Raab and Jeremy Hunt are all circling. It’s a long list of people who think they could do it better than her.

TV programs are now running a live Brexit countdown clock.

The UK is due to leave the EU on March 29. On March 30, the divorce will be complete, with or without a deal.

They didn’t plan it for 48 hours later for obvious reasons — but April Fools' Day would have been much more appropriate.