Teetering on extinction, 61-year-old British Prime Minister Theresa May scrambled for support after Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Brexit Secretary David Davis resigned yesterday. Driving their decision was May’s Brexit negotiations with the European Union. Johnson complains that May has given Brussels away the store in her Brexit negotiations, leaving the U.K. only halfway out of the EU. Calling the U.K. “heading for a semi-Brexit,” Johnson said in his resignation letter. “It is as though we are sending our vanguard into battle with the white flags fluttering about them,” thinking May has acquiesced to EU demands not in the U.K.’s best interest. When the Brexit vote was taken June 23, 2016, winning 51.9% of British voters, only a little more than half wanted to leave the EU. Knowing that, May has walked on a razor’s edge with the EU, keeping U.K. voters in mind.
Since becoming London’s mayor May 4, 2008, Johnson was known for his blustery rhetoric, prone toward hyperbole, something he’s toned down against in own instincts when he became July 13, 2016 British Foreign Secretary. Johnson was a big backer to the Brexit vote, largely due to an immigration backlash where U.K. citizens rejected immigration quotas from the EU. Accused of giving “too much away, too easily” and leaving the U.K. in a “weak negotiation position,” May’s losing support among her Tory party governing coalition. Losing Johnson, viewed by many in May’s Cabinet as a loose cannon, could be a blessing in disguise, giving her a chance to pick a less volatile Foreign Secretary. May vowed to fight what promises to be an undercurrent to remove her as leader of the Tory party. May showed no inclination to roll over, promising to fight for her PM job.
May insists her approach to Brexit is in the U.K.’s national interests, minimizing the potential damage done by leaving the $17 trillion economic bloc. “This is a Brexit that is in our national interest . . . It is the right Brexit deal for Britian,” said May, rejecting Johnon’s more extreme Brexit demands. Johnson wants a clean cut from the EU from the U.K., despite potentially harming the U.K economy. Over 48% of British voters fear that the Brexit will hurt economic opportunities dropping out of the world’s second largest economic bloc. Questions remain about whether or not the EU would honor the Schengen, passport-free travel arrangement after finalizing Brexit. May wants to preserve as many benefits to U.K. citizens with Brexit without enduring the hardship from a bad Brexit deal. Johnson sees May as giving the EU too many concessions before the deal’s finalized.
Whether May can survive Johson and Davis’ resignations is anyone’s guess. Chances are there’s enough Tory MPs that are happy Johnson is out of the picture. London’s bookies don’t give Johnson much chance of becoming prime minister should be challenge May for leadership of the Tory party. Like German Chancellor Angela Merkel, there’s simply no one ready to challenge May’s power in the U.K. Despite calls for May to step down by Johnson and Davis, there’s no where near the 48 defectors needed to drive May from power. Lurking in the shadows, 69-year-old Labor Party Jeremy Corbin only prays that May’s Tory party coalition collapses, giving him his shot a prime minister. Most Tories know that Corbyn would either nullify the Brexit vote or hold a new election. Most Tory MPs want some type of a Brexit deal over the U.K. returning to the EU utterly humiliated.
European Union Council President Donald Tusk didn’t help matters blaming the U.K. for their own problems. “The mess caused by Brexit is the biggest problem in the history of the EU-U.K. relations,” Tusk said, blaming British citizens for voting leave the EU. Tusk doesn’t accept his role in driving the U.K. out of the EU by insisting they take more and more Mideast and North African refugees. British voters said enough-was-enough June 23, 2016, worried that the flood of immigration to the U.S. was destroying opportunities for ordinary British citizens. Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker backed the Saudi proxy war against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, creating the immigration crisis in the Mideast and Europe. Now Tusk and Juncker want to blame the U.K. from bailing out of the EU, essentially to stop pressure to take more Mideast and North African refugees.
British Prime Minister tries to thread a needle, balancing the economic needs of Britain against June 23, Brexit vote only hitting 51.9% voters. Knowing that there are large numbers of Britons that wished to stay in the EU, May has tried to preserve many of the benefits of EU membership, while, at the same time, honoring the will of British voters to separate from the EU. Johnson and Davis quit not because they think May’s done such a feckless job with Brexit, they quit to bring down May’s Tory governing coalition to run for prime minister, at least that’s Johnson’s motive. “This is a mess entirely of the Prime Minister’s own making,” said Corbyn, blaming May for too much fence-sitting. Johnson’s resignation opened the door for 52-year-old Health Secretary Jermey Humt as Foreign Minister and Housing Minister Dominique Raab as Brexit secretary, both show May is still in charge..
