Europeans Lose Faith in Britain’s Unpredictable Leader
Europeans Lose Faith in Britain’s Unpredictable Leader
(Bloomberg) -- Theresa May’s European counterparts have lost faith in her just when she needed them most.
As she fights in London and Brussels to avoid a catastrophic crash out of the European Union in just eight days, European officials find themselves asking in private whether the U.K.’s prospects might have looked a lot less perilous with someone else in charge.
Just this week, May blindsided her European partners with mixed messages about extending the Brexit process. EU officials, speaking privately, said it was yet another example of the unreliability that has steadily eroded the trust between the two sides.
That makes them nervous as they head into the final days, and means they can’t rule out a no-deal exit, no matter how determined they are to avoid it.
This week her de facto deputy, David Lidington, told EU officials on Monday that she would send a letter requesting a flexible Brexit delay that would involve a potentially long postponement, according to people familiar with the situation. The EU penciled in an offer of between nine and 15 months.
On Tuesday night word reached Brussels that May wouldn’t in fact be sending a letter but would instead appeal to leaders directly at Thursday’s summit. By Wednesday morning, U.K. officials told Brussels the request would be for a three-week delay. Then on Wednesday afternoon a letter arrived. May, who had come under pressure from Brexit hardliners in her Cabinet, was asking for three months.
Her position on the extension -- hugely contentious at home -- changed as often as the British weather, one EU diplomat closely involved in the Brexit process remarked.
Since the deal between the U.K. and EU was finally struck in November, European officials have been irritated that she hasn’t defended it as she promised to -- and as she asked them to. Within days, she was requesting more concessions in a failed bid to win over pro-Brexit politicians in her own party and Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionists.
Her chief-of-staff, Gavin Barwell, also told the EU that May planned to allow Parliament to hold non-binding votes if her deal failed, in order to gauge what kind of relationship lawmakers might support, a senior diplomat said. That hasn’t happened, though May has indicated Parliament will have a chance on Monday.
Officials on the European side also say she’s putting the interests of her Conservative party before the interests of the country -- they suspect that she could find cross-party support for a closer post-Brexit relationship with the EU, but shies away from it for fear of creating a fatal rift within her own tribe.
EU diplomats are also angry that she hasn’t been able to put to rest suspicions at home that a better leader would have got a better deal. The irony, EU diplomats say, is that she got a good deal, but she just hasn’t been able to sell it.
May frequently tells Parliament that the agreement she got is the only one on offer, but she enraged the EU when she backed an amendment drafted by a rank-and-file lawmaker that sought to rip it up in the interests of party unity.
Despite it all though, EU leaders still want to help May get the Brexit deal over the line. The last thing they want is to start all over again with another British prime minister.
When EU President Donald Tusk on Wednesday suggested the options were May’s deal or no-deal, that was intended to give her ammunition. What he didn’t mention, because it doesn’t help her cause, is what would happen if her deal doesn’t pass next week.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who said he admired May and never got frustrated with her, also declined to say what would happen if she fails next week. “I don’t help her by going into that speculation.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Ian Wishart in Brussels at iwishart@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Emma Ross-Thomas
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