PMQs: Everyone in Westminster has someone else to blame

There’s this bit at the beginning of Waiting For Godot where Vladimir tells Estragon (struggling to remove his boot) “there’s man all over for you, blaming on his boots the faults of his feet.”

So for Theresa May, when it comes to the current Brexit deadlock, two weeks ago the boot was MPs failing to back her deal. This week it looks set to be Corbyn.

Everyone is blaming their boots. When Nick Boles resigned it was the Conservatives’ unwillingness to compromise. For the ERG it’s Ireland, not their own intransigence. For Juncker it’s the whole British establishment, not any of the EU’s cynical machinations.

In that vein, two weeks ago when May addressed the nation from Number 10 Downing Street, she blamed MPs for the stalemate:

“Two years on, MPs have been unable to agree on a way to implement the UK’s withdrawal… so far, Parliament has done everything possible to avoid making a choice. Motion after motion and amendment after amendment have been tabled without Parliament ever deciding what it wants.all MPs have been willing to say is what they do not want.”

For that, read: MPs (boot) have failed to get through a Brexit deal – this has little to do with my inflexibility over my red lines, my failure to seek cross party consensus at the beginning of the process, my secretive negotiations, and my decision to try and appease ERG intractables in place of finding a genuine workable majority (feet).

Now, Theresa May has a new strategy. She met Corbyn today to devise a way to reach some kind of consensus over a Brexit deal. If Corbyn fails to play ball the MPs will get to decide on an alternative.

It’s pretty crafty on the face of it. When Brexit fails to happen, or happens to be a complete mess (these feel like the only two options right now) May can shift partial blame to Labour. If Corbyn and May cannot agree on a proposal, May can point the finger at the leader of the opposition’s unwillingness to compromise. We tried and failed, she can say. Or if by some miracle they come to an agreement and the consequence is still a shambles it will have Corbyn’s fingerprints all over it. She, needless to say, won’t dwell too long on the fact she is seeking these negotiations on the edge of a no deal exit, with less than ten days to 12th April.

At PMQs today, SNP MP Stuart Hosie was (not the only one) wise to the tricks. He put it well when he asked May if, were things the other way round, and Corbyn had extended an invitation to get her hands dirty over an unworkable Brexit, “would she have been foolish enough to accept?”

Perhaps it’s cynical to read May’s strategy entirely in this light. But for a long time now Labour have been banking on the happy circumstance that whatever mess is made of Brexit it is very much a Tory mess. Corbyn can wash his hands as he heads triumphantly into the next general election. Not anymore.

Ahead of the talks between the parties’ leaders this afternoon, Corbyn deftly skirted around the topic of Brexit altogether in PMQs. It should come as no surprise that in its place was the favourite topic of austerity. And then weirdly, TV licenses.

People are poorer because of the Tory government. More people are in work because of the Tory government. But people are poorer. But more people work. But people are … When it comes to May and Corbyn it really is the same every time. There is nothing to be learnt.

This PMQs was more about the barrage May received from her own MPs, who are most unhappy about her jumping into bed with Corbyn to try and strike some kind of agreement. Lee Rowley MP asked May if she thinks Corbyn is fit for government – putting her in a very tricky position just before she’s due to be locked in a room with him for hours with the intention of saving the nation from no deal Brexit.

Julian Lewis MP then asked why May is working with a Labour leader to block a no deal Brexit. There were countless other questions of the same ilk. May didn’t really have an answer.

And as we count down the days to 12th April, and as a no deal Brexit becomes an increasingly real possibility (according to Michel Barnier’s comments yesterday, at least) it is good to seek comfort in the constants. That no matter what happens, the earth will continue to spin on its axis and everyone in parliament will enjoy pointing the finger at someone else when it all goes horribly wrong.