With only weeks left before the hoped-for end of November deadline for the EU to approve a draft Brexit treaty, it appears Brexit talks are unraveling once again, after Theresa’s May’s hard-won concession to allow the entire UK to remain in the EU customs union should trade negotiations fall apart during the post-Brexit day transition period, members of her own conservative party are showing her exactly what they think of what was supposed to be a game-changing breakthrough.
Three days after Joe Johnson (brother of notorious former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson) resigned as minister of transport after lambasting May for leading the UK toward an “incoherent Brexit that would leave us trapped in a subordinate relationship with the EU.” Johnson warned that the UK was on the brink of “the greatest crisis since World War II,” and that “so great is the gulf now between what was promised in the referendum campaign and what is on offer” that another “people’s vote” should be held to allow the public to weigh in. Johnson also encouraged ministers to “mutiny” against the prime minister, who he said was on the verge of “total surrender to Brussels.” After Johnson’s shocking call for what would be, in effect, a second Brexit referendum, something that even pro-remainers in the Labour Party have been reluctant to discuss given its implications for, well, democracy, four more pro-remain ministers are on the brink of resigning.
All of this has revived talk that the UK might be headed for a “no-deal” Brexit when Brexit Day arrives on March 29. In the EU, ministers have failed to agree on a Brexit meeting later this month, shifting expectations for the next summit to December.
Given that progress on the deal remains effectively stalled, May has abandoned plans for another emergency cabinet meeting on Monday, where they were supposed to have reviewed the details of a finished draft agreement. Since the outline deal likely won’t be ready by Tuesday, the likelihood that an EU summit will be called to review the final agreement by the end of the month has significantly diminished.
