The Spectator

The Spectator Podcast: Mayday!


In this week’s podcast, we discuss Theresa May’s impossible situation – how can she get herself out of the bind created by the Brexiteers and the Remainers? We also discuss the hostile environment policy, and ask, will Ireland appeal its Eighth Amendment?

First, Theresa May finds herself in a real dilemma. Her cabinet colleagues, the EU and her advisors are all pulling her in different directions over the question of the customs union. While Remainers argue that a ‘customs partnership’ is the only way to avoid a hard border in Northern Ireland, Brexiteers believe ‘max fac’ (a maximum facilitation agreement, which includes a technology based border in Ireland) is the only way forward. But James Forsyth writes in this week’s cover that as the Article 50 deadline approaches, the Prime Minister’s problems are only going to get worse. James joins us, together with Chris Wilkins, Theresa May’s former Director of Strategy, who argues that Mrs May’s problems stem, in part, from a lack of planning before Article 50 was triggered:

‘There was a lot of rhetoric coming from here about how we had to be prepared to stand up and walk out…it meant that some of the initial things where we could have got agreement then took longer,’

Aside from the ongoing Brexit debate, the Government has been reeling from the ongoing Windrush scandal.

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