Opposition MPs in Britain’s parliament yesterday joined ranks in accusing Theresa May of contempt for the country’s highest authority after the embattled Prime Minister (PM) postponed a vote in the House of Commons on her contentious draft deal to lead the UK out of the EU.
Since then May has left for Berlin where she is expected to negotiate for further trade concessions with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
After May’s shock announcement that the commons vote wasn’t going ahead as all indications pointed to the deal being roundly rejected, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s hope for Brexit to backfire on May has in itself boomeranged, if only for now.
Several opposition leaders have since joined him in his condemnation, including Ian Blackford of the Scottish National Party Westminster, Liberal Democrat Sir Vince Cable, Liz Saville Roberts of Wales nationalist party Plaid Cymru, and co-leader of the Greens, Caroline Lucas.
It is interesting that Corbyn’s attack against May has garnered such strong nationalist support, especially considering May’s remarks that the back-stop arrangement for the Northern Irish border is the most prominent objection to her deal.
The arrangement is said to maintain the current open border scenario between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, an EU country, but opponents have from the start campaigned that Brexit, for one, is supposed to protect the sovereign interests of the UK and that an open border in the Emerald Isle negates that principle.
But all 27 EU nations from which the UK has decided to split have already stated that the concessions they have made towards the UK in respect of burning issues such as the Irish border cannot accommodate more allowances.
Hurriedly leaving for Berlin after yesterday’s postponed vote was announced, May nevertheless said “I will do everything I possibly can to secure further assurances.”
Increasingly it seems though that she’s delaying the inevitable – the end of her tenure as PM, Brexit or not.