British Prime Minister Theresa May was to meet with a Northern Irish Protestant party yesterday to save her position, as she comes under intense pressure to soften her approach to Brexit days before formal EU divorce talks are to begin.
May’s botched election gamble left her so diminished that supporters of closer ties with the EU publicly demanded that she take a more consensual and business friendly approach to Brexit.
In an attempt to avoid a second election that could deepen the worst political turmoil in the nation since June last year’s shock vote to leave the EU, May apologized to her party’s lawmakers, who said they would leave her in power, for now.
Photo: Reuters
“She said: ‘I’m the person who got us into this mess and I’m the one who is going to get us out of it,’” one lawmaker from May’s Conservative Party who attended Monday’s meeting said. “She said she will serve us as long as we want her.”
To stay in government, May must strike a deal with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), a small euroskeptic Northern Irish party with 10 parliamentary seats. May was to meet DUP leader Arlene Foster in London yesterday.
However, a deal with the DUP would risk destabilizing the political balance in Northern Ireland by increasing the influence of pro-British unionists who have struggled for years with Irish Catholic nationalists who want Northern Ireland to join a united Ireland.
While DUP politicians are deeply euroskeptic, they have balked at some of the practical implications of a so-called hard Brexit — including a potential loss of a “frictionless border” with the Republic of Ireland — and talks are to touch on efforts to minimize the potential damage to Northern Ireland.
With EU divorce talks due next week, May was yesterday afternoon to head to Paris to meet French President Emmanuel Macron.
During the campaign, May cast herself as the only leader competent enough to navigate the tortuous Brexit negotiations that would shape the future of the UK and its US$2.5 trillion economy.
Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the opposition Labour Party, which saw its number of parliamentary seats and share of the vote increase, said there could be another election this year or early next year after the vote on Thursday last week produced no majority winner.
May has promised to start the formal Brexit talks next week, but opponents of a sharp break with the EU took her woes as a chance to push back against her strategy.
Before the election, May proposed a clean break from the EU, involving withdrawal from Europe’s single market, limits on immigration and a bespoke customs deal with the EU.
At the meeting with lawmakers on Monday, May recognized that a broader consensus needed to be built for Brexit and made clear she would listen to all wings of the party on the issue.
Scottish Conservative Party leader Ruth Davidson said the government should put economic growth at the heart of its Brexit strategy.
Former Conservative Party leader William Hague called for business groups and lawmakers from all parties to be brought in to agree a national position on Brexit.
May’s weakness means she must now listen to such views as she goes into Britain’s most complex negotiations since World War II.
British officials held “talks about talks” with the EU’s chief Brexit negotiatior in Brussels, but the negotiations might be delayed by the political upheaval in London.
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