With Theresa May looking more vulnerable than ever, she cut a sorry figure at Prime Minister’s Questions today.
“Just like our shambolic privatised railways, this government’s incompetence threatens our economy, businesses, jobs and our communities,” said the Labour Leader, referencing the Northern Rail franchise shambles.
“So, my question to the prime minister is this,” added Jeremy Corbyn, “Which will last longer, the Northern rail franchise or her premiership?”
Accused of having wasted more energy negotiating with her own fiercely divided party than with the other EU member states, Theresa May faces a tough test next week, with 15 amendments to the EU (Withdrawal) Bill to be debated on Tuesday and Tory party rebels threatening to cost her votes on crucial issues such as membership of the Customs Unions.
With business leaders and colleagues sounding dire warnings about the consequences of the real possibility of a no – deal Brexit or a Hard Brexit taking the UK out of the Customs Union, next week will be a major test for the PM. Especially with her Brexit Secretary threatening to resign.
The number of Brits saying the vote to leave the EU was the wrong decision has reached a new high, according to the latest data.
In the same week that prominent Leave campaigner Nigel Farage claimed he never “promised that Brexit would be a huge success” confidence from the British public also seems to be diminishing.
Shocking analysis recently pooled the mounting evidence that suggests Brexit will make us poorer. Some 97 per cent of academics, the IMF, World Bank, HM Treasury, all former Prime Ministers sill alive and the CBI have all come to the same conclusion.
At the same time as the Northern Rail crisis – a fiasco which could end up costing the taxpayer millions in compensation schemes and fare rises – and her Foreign Secretary threatening to vote against the Government on a new runway at Heathrow, Theresa May is facing calls from all quarters to hold an independent probe into Islamophobia in the Tory Party.
After many high-profile racist incidents among representatives of the Conservative Party, mosques around the UK, even top Conservative Muslims have joined the Muslim Council of Great Britain to demand an inquiry.
And Theresa May’s colleagues are briefing against her on a daily basis, with rumoured plans to oust her during the long summer Parliamentary recess when MPs have little to do but plot.
Today Jeremy Corbyn pulled no punches at PMQs demanding to know what was going on with May’s Brexit negotiations and why parliament was debating Brexit again without the very late publication of the government’s strategy for Brexit.
“Last month, the Brexit Secretary promised a “detailed, ambitious and precise” White Paper on the Government’s negotiating position. Will it be published in advance of the EU (Withdrawal) Bill debate next week?” Corbyn kept asking, with no real answer.
“Next week, we will be debating the most important piece of legislation we have seen for a very long time and we still have not seen the Government’s negotiating position. Will the Prime Minister at least assure the House that not only will the White Paper be published ahead of the crucial June EU summit, but that there will be an opportunity to debate it in this House ahead of the summit?”
With no answerafter asking three times, Corbyn asked the PM when the cabinet would make its mind up about crucial customs arrangements with Europe.
The BBC’s political editor Laura Kuenssberg today said there were concerns the latest plans on the customs backstop – what happens if there is no free trade deal or customs arrangements ready by the end of the transition period in December 2020 – would, in effect, mean the UK never leaving.
Instead, the Prime Minister avoided any such questions by repeatedly demanding that the Labour leader “rule out a second referendum.”
