Six of the worst: Theresa May's biggest Brexit blunders
The vultures are circling, the landlord has called last orders and the fat lady is about to sing.
Theresa May's days as Prime Minister are numbered, with Conservative support falling away after a series of Brexit-related debacles reducing her authority to zilch.
The PM had no easy task on her hands when she took over at Number 10 in July 2016, although she was fully aware that her tenure at the top would be dominated by Britain's attempts to leave the EU.
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As a leader, Mrs May has shown an incredible level of determination and stamina, often battling her way through ill health in an all out effort to reach her goal.
But there is no escaping the fact that the list of failings clocked up by her floundering administration is as lengthy as the zillions of EU statutes she is trying to re-write.
In some respects Brexit has helped the PM, in that it has dominated the news agenda to such an extent that other policy failings (law and order, Universal Credit, Windrush, schools funding... take your pick) have not been highlighted as much as they would have been at other times.
As far as the Mrs May's Brexit blunders are concerned, here's six of the biggest.
The decision to call a General Election – April 2017
The PM was riding the crest of a wave, with public support growing after she kick-started the Brexit process by triggering Article 50.
She surmised that by calling a General Election she could extend the Government’s working majority of 12 by blowing Jeremy Corbyn’s flagging Labour Party out of the water.
Oh for the benefit of hindsight
The General Election itself – June 2018
The PM had not counted on one thing – arguably the worst Tory manifesto in the party’s electoral history.
Many Conservative MPs hated it, as did the public.
That slim majority was completely wiped out and the Government was forced into a doomed pact with the DUP, as strains of “Oooooh Jeremy Corbyn” rang out in the background.
A record Commons defeat – January 2019
With the Government in turmoil having already postponed the Brexit vote from before Christmas, the PM put her deal to the Commons knowing that defeat was inevitable.
However, even Mrs May must have been surprised at the magnitude of the loss.
The margin of 230 signalled the heaviest parliamentary thrashing of a British PM in the democratic era.
Same deal, second drubbing – March 2019
The PM dashed back from a late night meeting in Strasbourg to put another version of her deal before the House.
However, most MPs spotted that it was remarkably similar to the last one, and it was voted down again, this time by 149 votes.
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result,” as an astute observer once said.
Delaying Brexit – March 2019
The PM has been nothing if not stubborn during her time in Number 10, and throughout the Brexit negotiations she has been adamant of one thing above all else: the UK will leave the EU on March 29.
In fact, she told Parliament that this would be the departure date 108 times.
Then in a speech last week, she announced that she would be politely asking her friends in Brussels for an extension.
Promises, promises.
Pitching Parliament against the people – March 2019
“I’m with you,” Mrs May told voters in that same Downing Street address, blaming MPs for wrecking Brexit by “playing political games” in refusing to back her deal.
Infuriating the very people she needed to pass said deal was an interesting tactic – and needless to say it bombed spectacularly.
It left the PM relatively friendless in the Commons, her catastrophic premiership entering its final days.
