Leaving party: Theresa May's Tories and Europe.
| Author | Bale, Tim |
| Position | Post-Brexit Analysis |
The Conservative Party is now profoundly divided ideologically, into 'hyperglobalisers' and the more mercantilist pragmatists. Theresa May enjoyed a unique window of power when she first became PM to fashion a clear vision of the form of Brexit that 'reluctant' Tory Remainers like herself would favour. But May chose 'safety first', trying to balance the Remain and Leave camps in her party, while focusing on wiping out UKIP as a threat to the Tory vote.
The atmosphere at this year's Tory Party conference in Birmingham was euphoric bordering on delusional. Brexit meant Brexit. The economy was waving not drowning. The EU needed us more than we needed the EU and countries outside it couldn't wait to do trade deals with us. Yes, we really could have our cake and eat it. All was for the best in this, the best of all possible worlds.
This was all a little odd. Given that, in the run up to the referendum, the majority of Tory MPs had come out in support of David Cameron's effort to keep us in the European Union, and given that surveys of the party membership suggested that by no means every grassroots Tory was a hard-line Leaver, then there must have been at least a few Remainers wandering around Birmingham dazed and confused. But if there were, nearly all of them were keeping very quiet about it. This was France after the liberation: nobody had collaborated; everyone had fought for the resistance.
Well, not quite everyone. There were a few brave souls willing to risk a tar and feathering by making it clear a) that they still thought leaving the EU was an unrivalled act of national self-harm and b) that they were now determined, if not to reverse it, then to limit the damage by calling out the Leavers on their empty and broken promises and by campaigning for as soft and smooth a Brexit as possible.
Yet those willing to raise their heads above the proverbial parapet--people like ex-minsters Anna Soubry and Nicky Morgan, and Chair of the Commons Education Select Committee, Neil Carmichael--could be counted on fewer than the fingers of one hand. And, when they weren't being dismissed as sore losers, they were accused of talking down the country rather than telling some valuable home truths. Not surprising, then, that Soubry's hopes of getting colleagues to elect her to the Commons Brexit Committee were quickly dashed. Indeed, only two of the ten picked to serve by Conservative MPs turned out to be Remainers
They and the handful of Tory pro-Europeans...
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