Brexit Turmoil: The Heart of the Crisis is May Herself.

Things have been made worse by the Fixed Term Parliament Act and the Supreme Court Ruling, both of which diminished the power of the executive and increased the power of the legislature, while leaving the structure unchanged. That is clearly not now fit for purpose. But it could have been managed as a problem revealed by the unique complexities of Brexit. With a different prime minister. But not with May.

She has now become the problem which will not go away while she remains in office. The fact that she does so is a systemic failure of the new arrangements, added to the desperate eleventh hour nature of the cliff edge to which the bewildered nation stumbles forward. The idea that the Tory party could now take time off to find itself a new leader while May remains in office as caretaker is plainly silly.

So in a country without a written constitution but somewhat addicted to precedent, let us go back to 1940. The British Army fell back reeling from the German assault only to be trapped by a massive attack in its rear from spearhead German forces broken through via the Ardennes. The frightened country, and believe me it was nervous and getting ready to lose the war in spite of flat caps and pitchforks lining up in the fields, turned on Chamberlain, the man in charge who had promised ‘peace in our time’ and was seen as the author of national misfortune and humiliation. He resigned.

But here is the thing. Chamberlain resigned as prime minister and advised the King, who wanted Halifax to take over, to send for Churchill.The process took hours not weeks as time had run out. But Chamberlain did not resign as leader of the Conservative party. Churchill ignored the Halifax led appeasers, reached across the House, brought Labour in, steadied the country, pulled off Dunkirk and won the Battle of Britain.

May should resign now, not as leader of the Tory party but as prime minister, and advice the Queen to send for her deputy, David Lidington, and appoint him caretaker prime minister until the crisis is resolved. He should then reach across the House, not to appease the hardcore, but to mobilise the sensible majority for a safe deliverance.  The rest is obvious. You can write it yourself.