Another May fudge on Brexit sees off Commons defeat
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The (former) Justice Minister Phillip Lee’s shock resignation caused quite a stir at Westminster. No-one was anticipating this, least of all his own family. Speaking at the Tory think tank Bright Blue, in front of an audience that included his wife, he said: “I cannot, in all good conscience, support how our country’s current exit from the EU looks set to be delivered.” A source told me: “I was sitting near her and I’m 99% sure she didn’t know he was going to do it.”
So was this an impulsive act of personal frustration or the start of a well-coordinated move against the government’s Brexit position? A few prominent Tories have praised Lee’s integrity for his ‘principled’ stand on Brexit, including Nick Boles (“I admire his honesty and integrity. So much classier to resign on principle when nobody is expecting it”). There he was knocking David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, who threatened to resign last week. Wouldn’t it have been classier of Boles to name Davis?
But there’s noise from Tories in Westminster that casts the move in a more cynical light. A highly ambitious chap, Lee is resentful of having been passed over for cabinet promotion. He harbours leadership ambitions and resigned at this critical juncture to get widespread media coverage, say some of his colleagues. He’s got what he wanted – I had barely a clue who Phillip Lee was till this morning, and yet here I am, making earnest speculations about his personal situation, his psyche, his deepest desires.
His resignation was not successful in securing an immediate victory over the government. Today, it avoided defeat on all of the amendments tabled today after some last minute to and fro-ing on the Grieve ‘meaningful vote’ for parliament amendment, which was rejected after May gave “personal assurances” that parliament would get a vote, and on a future ‘customs arrangement’ between the UK and the EU (backed by prominent hard Brexiteers and arch Remainers). It’s a fudge on the customs union commitment that might well command broad support.
Both sides have claimed victory but much is still up for grabs in the ‘ping pong’ back and forth with the Lords, including the specificities of the ‘customs arrangement’ commitment. Phillip Lee abstained on the ‘meaningful vote’ amendment and takes his place in history as surely the first Minister ever to hand in his resignation, only to … abstain.
If the government has succeeded in kicking the can down the road, the Donald-Kim summit seems to have followed the same script. The ‘peace deal’ document had very little concrete detail in it (even less than a similar denuclearisation treaty signed in 1992), but the significance is largely symbolic.
If an era of Glasnost is to break out in North Korean-American relations, there has to be seen to be some degree of fruitful dialogue between the figureheads of the two nations. It all got off to a rocky start however as Trump signalled that he would end military exercises involving American troops on the peninsula, to the surprise of the South Korean authorities. Your move, Kim.
Alastair Benn
News and Features editor