For months, analysts have wondered when the grinding pressures of Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union would stretch political divisions and loyalties to the breaking point, possibly leading to a realignment of British politics.
For months, analysts have wondered when the grinding pressures of Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union would stretch political divisions and loyalties to the breaking point, possibly leading to a realignment of British politics.
That point may have come closer this week.
On Wednesday, three lawmakers quit Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party, joining eight rebels from the opposition Labour Party in a bold attempt to smash Britain’s entrenched two-party system for the first time in a generation.
It will not be easy. The group of 11 newly independent lawmakers has no policy platform, political organization or leader, and it will operate in an electoral system that makes it almost impossible for new parties to break through.
Still, analysts believe that conditions are ripe for a shift, amid public disenchantment at the handling of Brexit, fierce internal party rifts, and a perception that both main parties are pandering to their extremes.
“We have a very divided Conservative Party, an extremely divided Labour Party and a new pole of attraction that did not exist until Monday,” said Steven Fielding, professor of political history at the University of Nottingham, referring to the day when the initial seven Labour lawmakers quit their party.
Politics is possibly as fluid as it has been since the 1920s,” he added. During those years, the Labour Party and the Liberal Party were vying to become the main opponent to the Conservatives.
Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, has shifted his party leftward, while hard-liners have pulled May’s Conservatives to the right over Brexit, leaving a gaping hole in the center and rendering many Britons politically homeless.
Adding to the sense of flux is the fact that significant numbers of Britons are starting to define themselves politically more in relation to their views on Brexit than to an affiliation with a political party.
Brexit certainly featured prominently in Wednesday’s defections. In a statement, the three lawmakers who left the Conservative Party, Anna Soubry, Heidi Allen and Sarah Wollaston, said they could no longer tolerate membership because of the influence of the party’s hard-liners.
“Brexit has redefined the Conservative Party — undoing all the efforts to modernize it,” the three lawmakers said. They added that there had been “a dismal failure” to stand up to the European Research Group, a faction of more than 50 strongly pro-Brexit Conservative lawmakers, which they accused of operating as a party within a party.
All three rebel lawmakers were part of the more pro-European wing of the Conservative Party and favor holding a second referendum on Brexit.
The announcement came before May left for Brussels for talks over her Brexit plan, which was rejected overwhelmingly by Parliament last month.
May discussed her demands in Brussels over dinner with Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission. Afterward, she said there had been progress.
“I’ve underlined the need for us to see legally binding changes to the backstop that ensure that it cannot be indefinite,” she said, referring to a mechanism to avoid building a physical boundary between Ireland and Northern Ireland that some Conservatives fear would leave Britain bound to the European Union. “We’ve agreed that work to find a solution will continue at pace.”
She said that “time is of the essence, and it’s in both our interests that when the U.K. leaves the EU, that it does so in an orderly way. So we’ve made progress.”
But progress, if made, was unclear. In a joint statement, May and Juncker said that their meeting had been “constructive,” that negotiators would continue their talks, and that they would meet again before the end of the month.
The European Union has said that there can be no renegotiation of the withdrawal agreement and no time limit to the Irish backstop. But the Europeans have said that an accompanying political declaration can be altered and side letters written to reassure the British Parliament that the backstop, if ever put to use, is intended to be temporary.
With less than 40 days to go before the Brexit deadline, Britain faces the possibility of a disorderly or even chaotic departure if May cannot secure changes that will help her reverse the defeat in Parliament.
In their resignation letter, the three lawmakers said that the final straw for them was the government’s “disastrous” handling of Brexit, and its willingness to contemplate departing the European Union without a deal. “We find it unconscionable that a party, once trusted on the economy, more than any other, is now recklessly marching the country to the cliff edge of no deal,” they wrote.
On Monday, the newly resigned Labour lawmakers castigated Corbyn, accusing him of equivocating over Brexit and tolerating anti-Semitism within the party. An eighth Labour lawmaker, Joan Ryan, later joined them, saying that Corbyn had allowed his party to become “infected with the scourge of anti-Jewish racism.”
A lifelong critic of the European Union, Corbyn has resisted pressure to support a second referendum on Brexit, to the fury of many of his lawmakers and activists.
The new group of 11 independent lawmakers has the same number as the centrist Liberal Democrats. Its next objective will be to try to lure more colleagues, overtake the Scottish National Party, with its 35 seats, and become the third-biggest force in the House of Commons, giving members a higher profile at events in the chamber, like Prime Minister’s Questions.
At a news conference, the three former Conservative lawmakers predicted more defections, saying many lawmakers are known to sympathize with the rebels. However, some might be inclined to wait to see what happens during the next few weeks, as both May and Corbyn face big decisions over Brexit.
That point may have come closer this week.
On Wednesday, three lawmakers quit Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party, joining eight rebels from the opposition Labour Party in a bold attempt to smash Britain’s entrenched two-party system for the first time in a generation.
It will not be easy. The group of 11 newly independent lawmakers has no policy platform, political organization or leader, and it will operate in an electoral system that makes it almost impossible for new parties to break through.
Still, analysts believe that conditions are ripe for a shift, amid public disenchantment at the handling of Brexit, fierce internal party rifts, and a perception that both main parties are pandering to their extremes.
“We have a very divided Conservative Party, an extremely divided Labour Party and a new pole of attraction that did not exist until Monday,” said Steven Fielding, professor of political history at the University of Nottingham, referring to the day when the initial seven Labour lawmakers quit their party.
Politics is possibly as fluid as it has been since the 1920s,” he added. During those years, the Labour Party and the Liberal Party were vying to become the main opponent to the Conservatives.
Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, has shifted his party leftward, while hard-liners have pulled May’s Conservatives to the right over Brexit, leaving a gaping hole in the center and rendering many Britons politically homeless.
Adding to the sense of flux is the fact that significant numbers of Britons are starting to define themselves politically more in relation to their views on Brexit than to an affiliation with a political party.
Brexit certainly featured prominently in Wednesday’s defections. In a statement, the three lawmakers who left the Conservative Party, Anna Soubry, Heidi Allen and Sarah Wollaston, said they could no longer tolerate membership because of the influence of the party’s hard-liners.
“Brexit has redefined the Conservative Party — undoing all the efforts to modernize it,” the three lawmakers said. They added that there had been “a dismal failure” to stand up to the European Research Group, a faction of more than 50 strongly pro-Brexit Conservative lawmakers, which they accused of operating as a party within a party.
All three rebel lawmakers were part of the more pro-European wing of the Conservative Party and favor holding a second referendum on Brexit.
The announcement came before May left for Brussels for talks over her Brexit plan, which was rejected overwhelmingly by Parliament last month.
May discussed her demands in Brussels over dinner with Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission. Afterward, she said there had been progress.
“I’ve underlined the need for us to see legally binding changes to the backstop that ensure that it cannot be indefinite,” she said, referring to a mechanism to avoid building a physical boundary between Ireland and Northern Ireland that some Conservatives fear would leave Britain bound to the European Union. “We’ve agreed that work to find a solution will continue at pace.”
She said that “time is of the essence, and it’s in both our interests that when the U.K. leaves the EU, that it does so in an orderly way. So we’ve made progress.”
But progress, if made, was unclear. In a joint statement, May and Juncker said that their meeting had been “constructive,” that negotiators would continue their talks, and that they would meet again before the end of the month.
The European Union has said that there can be no renegotiation of the withdrawal agreement and no time limit to the Irish backstop. But the Europeans have said that an accompanying political declaration can be altered and side letters written to reassure the British Parliament that the backstop, if ever put to use, is intended to be temporary.
With less than 40 days to go before the Brexit deadline, Britain faces the possibility of a disorderly or even chaotic departure if May cannot secure changes that will help her reverse the defeat in Parliament.
In their resignation letter, the three lawmakers said that the final straw for them was the government’s “disastrous” handling of Brexit, and its willingness to contemplate departing the European Union without a deal. “We find it unconscionable that a party, once trusted on the economy, more than any other, is now recklessly marching the country to the cliff edge of no deal,” they wrote.
On Monday, the newly resigned Labour lawmakers castigated Corbyn, accusing him of equivocating over Brexit and tolerating anti-Semitism within the party. An eighth Labour lawmaker, Joan Ryan, later joined them, saying that Corbyn had allowed his party to become “infected with the scourge of anti-Jewish racism.”
A lifelong critic of the European Union, Corbyn has resisted pressure to support a second referendum on Brexit, to the fury of many of his lawmakers and activists.
The new group of 11 independent lawmakers has the same number as the centrist Liberal Democrats. Its next objective will be to try to lure more colleagues, overtake the Scottish National Party, with its 35 seats, and become the third-biggest force in the House of Commons, giving members a higher profile at events in the chamber, like Prime Minister’s Questions.
At a news conference, the three former Conservative lawmakers predicted more defections, saying many lawmakers are known to sympathize with the rebels. However, some might be inclined to wait to see what happens during the next few weeks, as both May and Corbyn face big decisions over Brexit.