Two letters — one offering resignations, the other a warning — arrived in Theresa May’s inbox over the weekend, increasing pressure on the UK prime minister’s fragile government.
The resignation letter was from the chairman of May’s Social Mobility Commission, while the warning came from a former Appeals Court judge concerned that the European Court of Justice might maintain a hold over British courts following Brexit.
Together they are more straws on the camel’s back for May’s fragile government, according to political expert Stephen Barber of the University of Bedfordshire, but “not the straws that break it.”
Speaking to Arab News, Barber added that May’s government is the most fragile since that of former Prime Minister John Major in the 1990s, or “even back as far as the 1970s.” Barber doubts there will be negative consequences to the letters however, as Theresa May “is busy focused on Brexit for now.”
This focus on Brexit is exactly why the entire board of the Social Mobility Commission resigned over the weekend, according to its former chairman, Alan Milburn.
He said the UK government’s preoccupation with Brexit meant it “does not have the necessary bandwidth to ensure the rhetoric of healing social division is matched with the reality.”
The commission was established to work for a fairer society, but Milburn and three fellow commissioners have all now resigned. They include Gillian Shephard, a former Conservative government minister.
In his resignation letter quoted by UK media, Milburn wrote: “The worst position in politics is to set out a proposition that you’re going to heal social divisions and then do nothing about it. It’s almost better never to say that you’ll do anything about it.”
Theresa May’s letter from former Court of Appeals judge Richard Aikens was a warning to not accept a Brexit deal that could see the European Court of Justice (ECJ) continue to issue rulings that are binding in British courts. Aikens said that if that were to happen it would be “tantamount to reversing the result of the 2016 referendum.”
In a letter to May, seen by The Sunday Telegraph, Aikens expressed concern that the UK is heading for an arrangement whereby British judges could refer cases relating to EU citizens to the ECJ.
Aikens, president of the Lawyers for Britain group, which campaigned to leave the EU in the 2016 Brexit referendum, wrote: “If the (ECJ) were given the exclusive right to interpret the proposed UK/EU treaty in relation to EU citizens’ rights to enter and stay in the UK, the right of the UK to ‘control’ UK borders and the rights of all citizens who lived in the UK would be lost forever.”
The mounting pressure comes as Theresa May prepares for key meetings with EU leaders, beginning on Dec. 4, when she is due to meet with Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission.
May is expected to present the UK’s offer on the so-called divorce bill during the lunch meeting. If all goes according to plan, the British government and its EU counterparts could start the process of discussing trade talks, which May sees as being crucial to the UK’s future relationship with the EU.