Resolving the Brexit imbroglio

Almost 3½ rudderless years after voting 52 to 48 per cent on June 23, 2016, to leave the EU, British voters will have the chance on December 12, assuming the House of Lords assents, to bring an end to a long, costly and frustrating period of stasis. In their own interests, and those of the world’s fifth-largest economy, whose destiny and prosperity matters to the world, voters have an opportunity to seize the day if they want stable government with a working majority and a clear-cut policy agenda to achieve Brexit and move the nation forward. Snap elections, history shows, tend to be unpopular in Britain. And winter elections there are unusual. But this one is essential.

The Johnson government, backed by much of the Labour opposition, made the right call to bring it on. After months of deadlock, the House of Commons voted 438-20 on Tuesday in favour of an election. Almost 200 MPs abstained. As Boris Johnson said: “There is only one way to get Brexit done in the face of this unrelenting parliamentary obstructionism — this endless, wilful, fingers-crossed, ‘not me, guv’ refusal to deliver on the mandate of the people — and that is to refresh this parliament and give the people a choice … This house cannot any longer keep this country hostage.’’

The biggest risk is that the poll could reinforce the impasse that has paralysed the government, and parts of the British economy, since Theresa May’s gamble on an unnecessary early election in June 2017 backfired, returning a hung parliament. Unlike Mrs May, a Remainer for whom Brexit was “an impending adverse weather event’’, Mr Johnson recognises that leaving the EU presents a “massive economic opportunity”. But a lot of ground needs to be made up. Too little has been done since 2016 to devise and explain a detailed Brexit plan.

However unreliable the opinion polls, which did not pick up the outcome of the Brexit referendum, the Tories start the campaign with a 12- to 15-point lead over Labour. Much will depend on how the Liberal Democrats fare. They are committed to scrapping Brexit, which would make a Conservative/Lib Dem coalition such as that forged by David Cameron and Nick Clegg in 2010 untenable. A Tory/Brexit Party pact is a possibility.

Labour’s position on Brexit is complicated and confusing. Leader Jeremy Corbyn has promised to negotiate a better Brexit deal if he is in government. But he would then put that deal to a second referendum and campaign to Remain. As Jacquelin Magnay writes, a Labor win could result in two referendums next year — one for Brexit and another for Scottish independence, which would be the price to pay for Scottish nationalist support for Labour. Knowing how unpopular that prospect would be, Mr Corbyn wants to steer the campaign to his radical redistribution agenda of high tax and renationalising public utilities, transport, housing services and non-government schools.

Regardless of debates on vital national issues and strategic policy, the election needs to resolve Brexit. Mr Johnson’s colleagues say he rallied his troops on Tuesday like Henry V preparing for the Battle of Agincourt. Rhetorical flourish aside, comparisons with the Comedy of Errors are probably more apropos. The election is a chance to stop “hopeless and helpless’’ procrastinating over Brexit wending onwards to a “lifeless end’’.