March 11, 2019She quietly encouraged senior Tories on both the pro- and anti-
Brexit wings to start working on a plan to unite the warring fac-
tions. Kit Malthouse, a burly junior minister, gathered a group
for secret meetings. Snacking on segments of citrus-flavored
chocolate balls, a peculiarly English confection called Terry’s
Chocolate Orange, the rival Tories overcame their divisions.
They agreed on a blueprint that would come up with a tech-
nological solution to replace the most contentious part of the
Brexit accord, the Irish backstop—a continuation of the EU’s cus-
toms-check-free passage at the U.K.’s land border with Ireland.
Brexiters hate it because it would subject the U.K. to European
rules indefinitely. Technology, Malthouse and others say, would
circumvent that, keep commerce moving, and avoid the need
for building border checkpoints and barriers.
May was unimpressed. When she met Malthouse the week
of Jan. 21, she thanked him but concluded the plan wouldn’t
work and walked out of the room. An agitated Parliament soon
drew up proposals to take Brexit policy out of her hands in a
vote on Jan. 29. May had to do something. So, on Jan. 28, she
shifted her position yet again. Some 300 Tories packed a room
inside Parliament to listen as she abandoned her own exit deal,
throwing her weight behind a proposal by Tory MP Graham
Brady to rip out the hated backstop. That amendment, how-
ever, was only feasible if the government seriously entertained
Malthouse’s high-tech plan. She promised to look into the pro-
posals she’d dismissed. The Brady amendment won, and May
rejoiced. At last, the Tories were united behind a Brexit pol-
icy, and she had a clear message for Brussels: Parliament will
accept this exit deal—just get rid of the backstop.
The EU howled. How could May have trashed a central
part of the agreement she’d spent 18 months negotiating?
The European Commission had warned May’s team not to
back the Brady plan, because there was no way they could
agree to ditch the backstop. May decided to shake up her
team. She ordered Geoffrey Cox, the attorney general, to
go to Brussels and reopen talks on alternatives to the back-
stop. Cox, a wealthy Brexit-supporting lawyer with a boom-
ing baritone voice, was seen as credible among euroskeptics,
because he’d spent his time at the top of government leading
the revolt against May’s deal from within her cabinet. Many
Tories believe Cox’s verdict will be crucial. If he were to back
the plan, the DUP and pro-Brexit Conservatives could, too.
The rifts, however, are such that Cox now won’t tell the cabi-
net what he’s doing. He knows his colleagues can’t be trusted
to keep information to themselves.
Then on Feb. 14—two weeks after May gained a new man-
date to renegotiate her exit deal—Parliament voted to take it
away again. Pro-Brexit Conservatives had flexed their muscle
to prevent her from softening her position. They wanted to
keep a hard Brexit as an option. May watched the result on
television from inside her private parliamentary office, then
left in a fury, storming out straight to her car. One member ofParliament said it was the angriest May had ever appeared.
Inside Parliament, a fierce row broke out among the Tories.
One minister was seen remonstrating with a Brexit-supporting
Conservative rebel, who let fly a volley of abuse in response.The Valentine’s Day defeat was illuminating for the EU, proof that
there was no stable majority in the Commons for anything. It
also was a turning point for May’s ministers who didn’t want a
no-deal Brexit. Three of May’s most senior ministers decided
to step in to force her their way. On Feb. 18 they marched into
her Downing Street office. Led by Pensions Secretary Amber
Rudd, they told May that if she didn’t rule out a no-deal depar-
ture, they’d vote against her on Feb. 27, when Parliament was
to consider Brexit options once more. May’s aides feared the
three ministers could all quit at once, with as many as 20 junior
ministers threatening to follow.
On Feb. 25, May was in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, for an
EU-League of Arab States summit. Over a breakfast of crois-
sants, cheese, and coffee, German Chancellor Angela Merkel
asked May about reports suggesting the prime minister could
postpone Brexit. May replied that she didn’t want to extend
the deadline, but the question wouldn’t go away. Back in
London the next morning, May and her ministers sat around
the cabinet table inside 10 Downing Street for what was the
stormiest meeting of the year. Normally loyal ministers were
enraged at the option of a delay, and even more furious with
Rudd for pushing May into the move. May herself was said to
be angry. But her team knew that offering Parliament a chance
to delay Brexit would be the only way she could keep control
of the process. And that was the compromise her team came
up with—and Parliament backed—on Feb. 27: May would once
again negotiate with Brussels for a revised deal, a quixotic
quest, and if the Commons turned that down, then it could
vote to delay the divorce and take a hard Brexit off the table.
Things are still uncertain. The threat of the U.K. leaving
the EU with no deal on March 29 seems to have diminished,
with an extended deadline a far likelier outcome. But May’s
deal isn’t dead yet, because some of her fiercest euroskeptic
critics could vote for it rather than let Brexit be delayed. In a
March 4 note, Eurasia Group Ltd. Managing Director Mujtaba
Rahman wrote, “Many of the 118 Conservative MPs who voted
against it in January are ready to support the agreement in a
crucial vote over the next two weeks.”
If May succeeds in passing a deal, it will be due in large mea-
sure to her stubborn refusal to give up. “There is a sense of
exasperation and respect from colleagues in equal measure,”
says Tory MP Keith Simpson. Her ex-director of communica-
tions, Katie Perrior, says, “People criticize her for being bland
and vanilla in her approach, but maybe being all things to all
people has been the only way to keep her deal still in play.”
And despite the pressure of Brexit, May hasn’t lost her
sense of humor. After she survived the leadership challenge
in December, her team prepared a celebration with wine and
her favorite snack: potato chips. “I’ll be back in a minute” May
said on the way to meet the press. “Don’t eat all the crisps.” 47pulled off a political miracle
pulled off a political miracle
pulled off a political miracle