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"May’s belated attempt to reach out across the political divide was too little, too late."

Dr Anil Awesti"The resignation of Theresa May continues the Conservative Party tradition of their leaders being brought down by the question of the UK’s relationship with the EU.

“Regardless of the other (limited) policy developments that have occurred under May’s premiership, she will likely be remembered exclusively for her managing of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. More specifically, her inability to execute the UK’s departure from the EU during her time in power.

“I fear history will not be kind to May. Her strategy following the loss of the Conservative Party’s majority at the 2017 General Election has utterly failed. Instead of building a consensus across parliament for a withdrawal agreement, May focused her attention and energy on winning the support of a sufficient number of Conservative MPs, specifically trying to appease the hardline anti-EU faction within the Party.

“In the end, May’s belated attempt to reach out across the political divide was too little, too late. Whoever replaces May as Prime Minister will be faced by the same situation and it will be interesting to see if they have learnt from May’s mistakes.”

Dr Anil Awesti is a Senior Teaching Fellow in the Centre for Lifelong Learning where he leads an open access monthly seminar series ‘Analysing UK-EU Brexit Negotiations').

24 May 2019

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