Theresa May is irresponsible to scare people with the threat of a chaotic no-deal Brexit
The prime minister is right: parliament – including her – has let the people down. It is time to put it back to the people for a decision
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Your support makes all the difference.Theresa May said today that the British people deserved better than what the House of Commons had given them on Brexit. So divided is our parliament and our country that everyone can agree about that, and yet fail to agree on what should be done.
In one respect, the prime minister has undoubtedly failed the people. She is continuing to scare some of us with the prospect of a chaotic no-deal Brexit. Despite the Commons voting to rule it out, she has continued to try to use it as a threat to push Labour MPs into supporting her deal.
Today, she appeared to coopt Donald Tusk, the European Council president, to this unedifying strategy. He said that the EU would be willing to grant the UK a short extension of the Brexit timetable, but only if parliament approved Ms May’s deal. This implied that MPs would have to choose between the deal and leaving the EU in disorder on 29 March – the end of next week.
This is to frighten people to no good purpose. Would the EU really force the UK out without a deal? We do not think so. Mr Tusk also said that he would summon an emergency summit of EU leaders if needed – and most MPs must know that they are highly likely to agree an extension whatever the Commons decides.
Ms May seems to be trying to engineer a sense of crisis in an attempt to put pressure on MPs. This is irresponsible. She is not the only member of parliament who is behaving irresponsibly – Jeremy Corbyn has hardly raised himself to the level of events – but as prime minister she has a heavier obligation to put the national interest first.
Today she tried to ratchet up the self-induced crisis another notch, by declaring that, if she failed to get her way, she would resign. “As prime minister, I am not prepared to delay Brexit any further than 30 June,” she declared. This was a curious way to try to persuade MPs to support her deal.
Either she was hinting, again, at a no-deal exit on 30 June – and The Independent does not believe that parliament would allow her to do that – or she was saying that, if she lost the next vote on her deal, she would be off, leaving someone else to sort out the mess.
As we approach the endgame of this phase of the neverending Brexit story, readers who support our campaign for a Final Say referendum should take heart.
The story is not over yet, and a longer extension to the Brexit timetable to allow the question to be put back to the people is now a real possibility. Now is the time for the British people to make themselves heard in the debate, by joining the Put It To The People march on Saturday.
We deserve better from our government and our parliament: this weekend let them hear the people’s voice loud and clear.
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