- Can chaos in the UK be avoided ahead of EU exit?
Last week, U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May’ deal to leave the EU came under severe criticism in her party with very few feeling satisfied with her proposal. Although May has still got the support of Chancellor Philip Hammond and Secretary Of Environment and Food Michael Gove and claims support from her cabinet, she faced multiple resignations in protest to the deal last weekend less than 24 hours after its announcement. Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab, Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey, Minister of State and the Northern Ireland Office Sailesh Vara and Brexit Minister Suella Braverman resigned from the cabinet last week. However, this has not stopped her from proceeding ahead. On Thursday, May vowed to continue with her Brexit deal. Thanking Raab and McVey, the two cabinet ministers who resigned earlier, May said she was sorry to see her colleagues leaving the government.
“Serving in high office is an honor and a privilege, but also a heavy responsibility,” she said.
Stressing that negotiating Brexit is a matter of the highest consequences, she said: “it touches every area of our national life,” and she confirmed that her approach has been to put “national interest first.
May asserted the deal approved by the Cabinet on Wednesday “delivers what people have voted for”.
"I believe with every fiber of my being that the course I have set out is the right one for our country and all our people.
"From the very beginning, I have known what I wanted to deliver for the British people to honor their vote in the referendum," she said.
She warned that nobody can foresee the consequences if they do not continue with the deal.
The British people “just want us to get on with it,” she added.
Following the resignations and a statement by May in the House of Commons, Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg has sent a letter of no confidence in the prime minister to the Conservative Party’s 1922 Committee.
Speaking to the media outside parliament, Rees-Mogg said the government should go back to Brussels and tell them that the U.K. will leave without a deal, and trade on the terms of the World Trade Organization.
“Regrettably, the draft withdrawal agreement presented to parliament today has turned out to be worse than anticipated and fails to meet the promises given to the nation by the prime minister, either on her own account or on behalf of us all in the Conservative party manifesto,” he said in the letter.
“It is of considerable importance that politicians stick to their commitments or do not make such commitments in the first place,” he wrote.
A vote to end May’s leadership will need at least 48 letters in total before it can be initiated.
-The draft deal
Under the proposed deal, the EU accepted the idea of a whole-U.K. customs union with the bloc in a major concession to align with the U.K.'s demands to protect its territorial integrity.
A previous EU version of a backstop would keep Northern Ireland anchored in the EU single market and in the customs union until a solution is found on the border issue on the island of Ireland. In return, Britain is reported to have agreed that it will not be allowed to exit the backstop unless and until the EU is convinced that there is no prospect of a return to a hard border. The EU said an emergency Brexit summit would be held on Sunday, Nov. 25 in Brussels.
The U.K. is set to leave the EU in March 2019, but how May can convince her party and the parliament to support the deal still remains to be seen. At the same time, she faces a vote of no confidence in her leadership. In order to muster public support and avoid a general election, she may well take the deal to a referendum to determine what the nation really wants and possibly gain legitimacy for her decision. The possibility of a second referendum is increasing despite May’s objections to holding one.