ANALYSIS: Theresa May picks the right moment to deliver her best Brexit speech
2 min read
Theresa May’s greatest strength as Prime Minister is that she benefits from very low expectations.
Several attendees at Wednesday night’s Westminster Correspondents’ Dinner have admitted that part of the reason why they enjoyed her gag-filled speech so much was that they hadn’t expected it to be very good.
Her less-than-stellar reputation also meant that we approached her Brexit speech today with, if not dread, then certainly trepidation.
The omens were not great.
She had had to drag her Cabinet to an away day at Chequers last week in order to thrash out an agreed UK position on the next stage of the negotiations with Brussels.
Even then, they still spent two hours yesterday making ‘helpful’ suggestions as to how May’s speech could be improved.
It is unclear precisely how much heed the PM took of their advice, but it unlikely she will want to give them much credit for what was a thoughtful, serious and constructive address.
In truth, there was something in it for just about everyone.
For the Brexiteers, there was comfort in May’s insistence that there will be no backsliding on her determination to take the UK out of the single market and customs union.
For Remainers, an acknowledgement that the no-deal Brexit on World Trade Organisation terms espoused by the more cavalier Leavers was a non-starter.
For the EU, there was an acceptance that May’s famous red lines will have to take on a pinker hue in order to get an agreement over the line.
And for Dublin, a complete rejection of the notion - put forward by one Boris Johnson earlier this week - that the job of avoiding a hard border in Ireland was not the UK’s responsibility.
But there was also an iron fist inside the velvet glove. If trying to get the best possible trade deal by keeping the best bits of EU membership and discarding the rest was “cherry picking”, May said, then so was every other one struck in the history of humanity.
And there was the call for the EU to stop the sabre-rattling and “get on with it”. The message was clear - you need a deal as much as we do, so let’s cut the crap and get it sorted.
Time will tell whether this was enough to break the deadlock, and God knows there will be many more crises before now and Brexit Day next year.
But as starts go, it wasn’t a bad one.
