Brexit implosion could hurt May

THE EDITOR: With the resignations of the Brexit and Foreign Secretaries Davis and Johnson, the Brexit seismology has assumed the dimensions, challenges and divisiveness of the metaphorical Pandora’s Box prematurely opened up by a discarded former PM David Cameron who was its first prime ministerial victim with Theresa May likely to become the second.

The several uncertainties spawned by this political economic issue is destabilising every aspect of British economic life with the only respite being generated by the fortunes of the English football team at the World Cup in Russia.

The enigmatic Brexit plot has now thickened exponentially. While the theatre for prosecuting this new diplomatic virtual war to reacquire independence for Britain was the EU headquarters in Brussels, it has now spread its tentacles to Westminster, to the Labour Party, the DUP coalition partner, Conservatives, the media, the business community, and the people themselves who conducted a million-people march against Brexit through the streets of London recently.

The electorate is totally confused because May has deviated from the message of the 2017 referendum with her soft Brexit landing that she expects to use to placate Michael Barnier, the chief EU negotiator.

Brexit has now morphed into an unprecedented tsunami threatening to destroy every British interest in its path. Threats of betrayal against Prime Minister May with her soft Brexit configuration adopted at the Chequers Cabinet retreat last weekend have been made by senior Conservatives. Boris Johnson has accused her of attempting to make Britain a colony of the EU were the proposals tabled by May to become the basis for the divorce.

The 1922 Committee of backbenchers of the Tory party needs 48 MPs who will support a vote of no confidence to trigger a vote in the Conservative Party against May’s continued leadership. All these developments will certainly delay the withdrawal of the UK from the EU, scheduled for March 29 next year.

Political and economic uncertainty has been undermining investment confidence in the political economy of the UK and may result in a weak pound, making imports more expensive and diverting key investments to the EU countries away from Britain.

Brexit is not exclusively about negotiating a favourable trade deal with Europe. It is also the mechanism by which the UK hopes to regain its former political and economic independence and sovereignty that is fuelled and propelled by recollections of the global British character of the 19th century Britain.

Insularity is also an operating factor that frees Britain from continental Europe to recapture its erstwhile dominant power in world trade. Britain has become the periphery of Brussels that emerged as the dominant centre reminiscent of the old colonial paradigm.

Further resignations by the two vice-chairmen of the Conservative Party have heightened tensions at Westminster and the governing party. The possibility of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers initiating the process for the passage of a vote of no confidence in the leadership of May by obtaining the support initially of 48 Tory MPs is real and can lead to the collapse of May’s administration and the development of a very serious political crisis that can radiate to the remaining 27 EU member states.

STEPHEN KANGAL, Croydon, England