May’s desperate pitch for cross-party unity is a leap into the dark | Rafael Behr

The prime minister now hopes to collaborate with Labour and seek another Brexit extension. But EU patience is running out

One way to identify Britain’s next Brexit panic is to look for a problem that was foreseen in Brussels ages ago. For example, the European commission, seeing that Theresa May’s deal was failing, decided in January that Britain would need to have European parliamentary elections if Brexit ended up being delayed into the summer. Three months later, it is the prospect of holding that ballot that has provoked May into a desperate pitch for collaboration with Labour in pursuit of some version of Brexit that stands a chance of Commons ratification.

This has been the pattern from the start. The EU anticipates problems, makes choices and waits for British politics to catch up. Even before the referendum there were warnings about the impossibility of frictionless borders outside the single market. The specific challenge that posed for Northern Ireland was identified and baked into the commission’s negotiating mandate in May 2017. But in February 2019 Dominic Raab, a man who briefly led Brexit negotiations, and fancies himself as a potential prime minister, admitted he had not read the Good Friday agreement. It is only 35 pages long.

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