Brexit mayday as PM fails and no-deal exit beckons

British Prime Minister Theresa May’s half in, half out Brexit deal was always bound to end in humiliation for her in the House of Commons. But she is right to point out that it was the only deal on offer and that, for all their bravado and ballyhoo, none of the 432 MPs who inflicted the worst legislative defeat on a British prime minister in living memory has a better plan — or, for that matter, any sort of plan — that would either win the approval of parliament or be agreed to by the EU. Incredibly, that is the crux of the crisis that now confronts Britain 70 days out from its scheduled withdrawal from the EU. It would be hard to imagine a greater betrayal of all the hopes for Brexit and for Britain regaining its place in the world free from the shackles of Brussels that were stirred by the 2016 referendum.

For this, the hapless Mrs May must take much of the blame. That 118 Tory MPs were prepared to vote down their own Prime Minister shows that. But it is hardly a surprise given the ineptness she has shown in the past 2½ years. She may have been dealt a near-impossible hand, but she played it extraordinarily badly. While Brussels worked assiduously to build a consensus among its 27 members on the terms they would agree to for a negotiated Brexit, Mrs May’s handling of the negotiations was, in the view of The Times, “marked by poor decision making, obfuscation, subterfuge and misplaced tribalism”.

A Remainer thrust uncomfortably into the role of giving effect to Brexit, Mrs May’s tactics only divided her own party and satisfied no one, as the vote showed, with Tory MP Julian Lewis summing up the despair within the Prime Minister’s ranks when he said: “Because Brexit should mean Brexit and no deal is better than this bad deal, I shall vote no, no and no.”

Hardline Brexiteers such as former foreign minister Boris Johnson cannot escape their share of the blame for the parlous state in which Britain now finds itself. They have made life impossible for Mrs May, without having any solutions of their own that would have done any better in a parliamentary vote. Mr Lewis’s argument is all very well as a tribal cry for the regained sovereignty and control over national borders that underpinned the Brexit vote in the referendum. Those who support it believe that after a period of turmoil, things will settle down and life will go on for a new Britain, unshackled from Europe and able to negotiate new trade deals with other countries, Australia included.

Overwhelmingly, however, the view among leading economists, led by the governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, is that a no-deal Brexit would be a disaster, and it is imperative that Mrs May, despite her defeat, continues to seek a compromise with Brussels that leads to a negotiated exit.

In normal times, a parliamentary defeat such as that suffered by Mrs May would have led to her immediate resignation. But these are far from normal times. Britain is facing a challenge unlike any it has encountered in decades, with the prospect of leaving the EU opening up deep divisions in British society. There is no certainty that any other leader would get a better deal from Brussels. On the other hand, it is quite clear that a second referendum, touted as another way out of the imbroglio, would further exacerbate divisions among the people.

Calling another election, too, is fraught with danger, with the disarray in the Tory party opening up a real possibility that Jeremy Corbyn, the most far-left Labour leader since Michael Foot, could end up in Downing Street, a scenario that would pose a serious threat to Western security and the Five Eyes bedrock of the Western alliance. Mrs May’s scope for manoeuvre after such a crushing defeat is extremely limited. Assuming she survives the votes of no confidence Mr Corbyn has initiated against her, however, she is on the right track in urgently calling together all the party leaders in the House of Commons to ask how they see the way ahead and how they propose a negotiated Brexit, rather than a no-deal Brexit, could be achieved. It is a fair question. Perhaps in the end there will be no alternative to a hard, no-deal Brexit, with all the uncertainty that entails. But until then, Mrs May — or whoever is in Downing Street — must not give up trying.