Brexit referendum - Second poll would halt the chaos

It is hard to imagine Theresa May surviving as British prime minister and leader of the Conservative Party, in light of the chaos unleashed by the resignation of her ministers opposed to the deal she agreed on Brexit.

The most contentious part of the agreement is the mechanism for ending it — the backstop.

It is to the prime minister’s credit that she ratified an agreement on a backstop arrived at last December when she could have repudiated it, as many within her party and the DUP wanted.

However, she has showed the same kind of political naivety that led her to call a general election last year — with disastrous results for the Conservatives. Since then, 14 members of her cabinet have resigned, most of them over Brexit.

It is equally hard to imagine that a Conservative prime minister could unite almost the whole of the House of Commons on anything — yet she appears to have done just that by alienating all sides, with the result that Brexiteers and Remainers are now in an unholy alliance of opposition to the deal reached.

Ms May is fighting on three fronts: Concern among her remaining cabinet, discontent among Conservative and Labour MPs in the House of Commons, and strident opposition from the DUP, the party that holds the balance of power in parliament.

The DUP’s reaction to the deal has been borderline hysterical. Speaking in the House of Commons, the party’s Brexit spokesman, Sammy Wilson, described it as a case of “Northern Ireland being put on a platter as an object to surrender to the EU.”

DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds put it even more trenchantly, declaring: “The choice is now clear: We stand up for the United Kingdom, the whole of the United Kingdom, the integrity of the United Kingdom, or we vote for a vassal state with the breakup of the United Kingdom.”

It is ironic that the DUP is demanding that Northern Ireland be treated the same as Britain when it comes to Brexit while, at the same time, insisting on maintaining legal differences in terms of education, labour law, access to abortion services, gay rights, and gambling. It even sought to align corporation tax rates with the Republic.

The chaos in the Commons has excited political commentators far and wide, not just in the UK and Europe, but beyond.

Writing in The New York Times, British political analyst Helen Lewis asks: “Would members of Parliament really let a ‘no deal’ Brexit go ahead? The terrifying possibility is that they might not be able to stop it, simply because it is the only option left.”

In fact, it isn’t. There is an alternative voiced by former prime minister Tony Blair who is urging a second referendum, now that the people of the UK would be able to make a more informed decision.

There is no certainty, of course, that a second poll would reverse the vote of 2016 but, whatever the outcome, it would at least bring a halt to the current chaos.