What can we expect from the prime minister’s decision to speak with senior parliamentarians to gauge the kind of Brexit deal, if any, that might get through the Commons?
I have been talking with members of the cabinet and those close to her – and they are divided on whether this is a genuine attempt to find a workable consensus or simply more Micawberish delay in the hope that unknown events will bail her and her government out.
First things first.
In the motion the PM will lay before the House, probably on Monday as she is obliged to do under the Grieve Amendment, don’t hold your breath for a sharply delineated set of proposals to put back to the EU for negotiation.
Instead, according to a senior member of the government close to May, there will be more on the process of getting to that set of proposals. It will be a general statement about the direction of travel.
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The point is, according to that ally of the PM, there are two huge aspects of her plan that need to change, one that is ‘easy to describe but incredibly hard to execute’, according to the ally, and the other which ‘may turn out to be easier to do but is incredibly hard to describe’.
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