Who betrayed Brexit? That’s the question both Labour and the Conservatives will surely put to the country at the next election, whenever it is. One Tory minister recently sketched out three possible futures to me: the first, a catastrophic Brexit without a deal; the second, a deal that breaks many of the pledges made initially by Vote Leave and then by Theresa May; and, last of all, a deal in which the United Kingdom remains in permanent transition until either the Tory party’s civil war resolves itself or new technology solves the Irish border puzzle. A long time indeed, in other words.
What connects all three of these outcomes is that the British people voted for none of them. But the Conservatives don’t intend to hand over the reins of government to Jeremy Corbyn without a fight, so an explanation for what went wrong will have to be found.
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