In her speech announcing the formal dissolution of parliament on 3 May, Theresa May said the next government would “face one overriding task . . . to get the best possible deal for this United Kingdom from Brexit”.
The Conservatives’ election campaign called on the electorate to choose between the Prime Minister and Jeremy Corbyn to negotiate the Brexit deal, insisting that May was the obvious dealmaker. But her government’s only firm Brexit handshake so far has been with the car manufacturer Nissan, to get it to remain (sorry, “stay”) in Sunderland. This was a great boon, for Nissan. For the government, it was a faulty 1997 Reliant Robin.
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