There is a great opportunity in front of the Tories. As I say in the magazine this week, there’s 12 more years in power for the taking for them because of the split in the Labour party. But seizing this opportunity will require the Tories to temper their passions on Brexit.
There are two Brexit outcomes that would be electorally disastrous for the Tories: no Brexit and no deal. No Brexit would be catastrophic because the Tories would have failed to deliver on the referendum result. The last two and a bit years would have been for naught and a pro-Brexit party would take huge chunks out of the Tories’ support. No deal wouldn’t be as bad. But it would still send the Tories to defeat at the next election. Both the challenges of it and how late in the day the government has left preparations for it, mean that it would destroy the Tories’ reputation for competence.
If the Tories are going to stay in power they need to deliver an orderly withdrawal.
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