The
Goldman Sachs tape shows May is not leading on Brexit, but following
Anne Perkins
Wednesday 26 October
2016 11.45 BST
In
private comments pre-referendum the prime minister warned companies
would relocate if the UK left the EU. So why is she pursuing hard
Brexit?
The road on which
Theresa May currently finds herself is well travelled. Most
successful politicians rely on a kind of necessary deception,
projecting authenticity and credibility while conducting business in
the only way that political business can be conducted: by
negotiation. On balance, but never enthusiastically, May thought
Britain would prosper more as part of an imperfect EU than out of it.
In an informal session with the global bankers Goldman Sachs, a month
before the referendum, she stressed the financial value of membership
and warned of the consequences of leaving the single market.
Crucially, she admitted she thought companies that were in the UK to
take advantage of the European market would relocate, something that
would have a major impact on jobs as well as financial services.
Leaked recording
shows Theresa May is 'ignoring her own warnings' on Brexit
Read more
In a speech to a
more sceptical audience in April, a month earlier, she had been more
nuanced. But at neither event did she suggest, as she did in her
conference speech earlier this month, that curtailing free movement
must take priority over membership of the single market, nor
advocate, as her home secretary did, that employers count their
foreign workers, or that the fate of EU citizens in Britain might be
a matter for negotiation. Quite the opposite in fact: in her
on-the-record speech in April, she actually said that while free
movement rules make it harder to control European immigration “they
do not mean we cannot control the border”.
Since 23 June, Mrs
May has said scarcely a kind word about the EU. This is not
necessarily dishonourable: her rhetoric has been aimed at persuading
the 52% who voted leave that she feels what they feel. She is
marching to their tune. A consequence of the binary choice of a
referendum as opposed to the choice between programmes offered by a
general election is that it appears to deliver a single message that
politicians are obliged to honour. We are all learning how to manage
the consequences.
That is more or less
the official line from No 10 this morning, in the wake of the
Guardian’s story about her private speech: “We are working to
make a success of this new opportunity.”
But this is no way
to rebuild the confidence of voters in the good intentions of
politicians. May is overinterpreting the result, using it to
construct headlines and justify policies that are not borne out by
the subsequent analysis of the no vote – which shows that it was
neither exclusively among poorer people, nor mainly motivated by
anti-migration sentiment – and then using it to promote division.
This is not leading, it is following.
May is establishing
herself as one of the most evasive of modern prime ministers. This is
a lethal electoral strategy
Healing the
divisions that the referendum exposed does not mean acting as if all
the right was on one side. That is democracy as the tyranny of the
majority. Often, it is clear that May does really understand that. On
the steps of Downing Street as the new prime minister in July, she
began by acknowledging the kind of institutional injustice that makes
people feel powerless, and she talked persuasively of an economy that
works for all. That is the tone of voice that the post-referendum
country needs.
May is already
establishing herself as one of the most evasive of modern prime
ministers. The psychologist Peter Bull describes her as a sphinx-like
equivocator, author of a new technique of never giving a specific
answer to a direct question. This is a lethal electoral strategy.
The Theresa May who
talked to the smart kids at Goldman Sachs a couple of months earlier
might have allowed her audience to influence her tone of voice. She
might have thought that her words would remain unreported. But I
think that was the authentic Theresa May. She should remember that
authenticity is the quality voters most value. And she should reframe
her message about Brexit to reflect her real concerns before she
leads a car-crash departure with all the miserable consequences that
she foresaw when she was talking the truth to the city slickers.
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Theresa
May under fire for secret talk of Brexit fears
After
the Guardian published leaked audio of her speech to Goldman Sachs,
politicians from the UK and across Europe have criticised the prime
minister
Rowena Mason,
Jessica Elgot and Philip Oltermann
Wednesday 26 October
2016 20.40 BST
Theresa May has come
under intense criticism from politicians across the UK and Europe
after it emerged that she had warned of the dangers of Brexit in a
private talk at Goldman Sachs a month before the referendum vote.
The prime minister
was accused by a string of MPs, headed by Jeremy Corbyn, of ignoring
her own concerns about the risks of leaving the single market, as
revealed in her remarks to City bankers that were leaked to the
Guardian on Tuesday night.
In Germany,
politicians from both governing parties accused May of failing to
show leadership. They said her remarks demonstrated that it would be
impossible to leave the European Union without economic consequences.
Corbyn attacked May
for failing to set out her plan for Brexit to the British people as
clearly as she had once expressed her beliefs to her elite audience.
“The prime minister has given her private views on Brexit to
Goldman Sachs bankers, but refuses to give the British people a clear
plan for negotiations,” the Labour leader said. “It shouldn’t
take a leaked tape for the public to find out what she really
thinks.”
Ed Miliband, the
former Labour leader and leading member of the Open Britain campaign
group, said the revelation “demonstrated that the prime minister
was just as worried privately as the rest of us are publicly about
the economic impact of the hard, destructive Brexit her government
seems set on”.
He said it showed
she clearly understood the economic risks of leaving the single
market and urged her to share internal government analysis about the
danger to the economy.
“If private
warnings are to be matched by proper public debate, it is essential
that the government is not allowed to hoard vital analysis of the
impact on our economy of leaving the single market. This work is
being done in government and it must now be published,” he said.
In the hour-long
session at Goldman, May said: “I think the economic arguments are
clear. I think being part of a 500 million [population] trading bloc
is significant for us. I think, as I was saying to you a little
earlier, that one of the issues is that a lot of people will invest
here in the UK because it is the UK in Europe.
“If we were not in
Europe, I think there would be firms and companies who would be
looking to say, do they need to develop a mainland Europe presence
rather than a UK presence? So I think there are definite benefits for
us in economic terms.”
As prime minister,
May has appeared to pursue a hard Brexit stance – prioritising
cutting immigration over staying in the single market, while refusing
to elaborate any further on her plans for taking the UK out of the
EU.
Miliband was one of
a several of politicians, including from Labour, the Liberal
Democrats, the Scottish National party and even some Conservatives,
who said the prime minister’s private comments highlighted the need
for her to heed her own warnings about the economic dangers of
Brexit.
Tim Farron, the Lib
Dem leader, said it was disappointing that May “lacked the
political courage to warn the public as she did a bunch of bankers in
private”, while the SNP said it showed May agrees with Scottish
first minister Nicola Sturgeon about the dangers of leaving the
single market.
Labour will seek to
capitalise on the prime minister’s difficulties and divisions over
the EU. Shadow chancellor John McDonnell will give a speech on
Thursday warning of “Bankers’ Brexit” as the Conservatives
“look to cut special sweetheart deals for big business and bankers,
while ignoring manufacturers and small businesses”.
“As May told
Goldman Sachs earlier in the year, the chaotic Brexit the hardliners
favour would lead to job losses and businesses leaving the country,”
he is to say.
Anna Soubry, the
former Conservative business minister, was more diplomatic, saying
she had been heartened by the prime minister’s comments as it
indicated she was aware of the dangers of leaving the trading bloc.
“She clearly knows what the benefits of the single market are and
how important it is,” Soubry said.
“And we now have
to retain our membership, and in order to do that we will have to
loosen up our views on immigration. We know that can be difficult,
but she knows the benefits, and because she knows the benefits, she
knows what we have to do.
“The most
important thing is getting the best deal for Britain, and we can’t
have the guiding principles and terms decided behind closed doors.”
No 10 attempted to
play down the significance of the leaked tape from a month before the
poll, insisting that the prime minister – who was pro-remain before
the June poll – had expressed the same views in the campaign
publicly and now wants the best deal that can allow Britain to trade
freely with and within the single market.
Her official
spokeswoman said: “The PM made a speech at the end of April talking
about the risks [of Brexit] and also the opportunities and that we
can be a successful country both inside and outside the EU. The
British people made the decision we will be outside the EU and the PM
is now focused on delivering that and making a success of it”.
She added that May
did not shy away from the fact she had supported remain.
“She’s been
clear and talked about that position she took in the campaign,” the
spokeswoman said. “But this wasn’t the decision of one person, it
was put to the British people, they made a decision, we have to focus
on how to make it work.
“That’s why we
are now focused on our principles as we go into these negotiations,
understanding what the specific interests are, meeting investors
overseas, engaging with businesses here, to establish a full picture
to guide those objectives in negotiations.”
Politicians in
Europe took a less charitable approach to the remarks. Jürgen Hardt,
foreign policy spokesman of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic
Union, said: “It is the prime minister’s first and foremost duty
to prevent her country from any harm. Of course, she is now
confronted with a huge dilemma, because she simply cannot fulfil the
Brexiters’ expectations: leaving the EU and being able to lead the
country to economic prosperity at the same time has always been an
illusion.
“Theresa May
apparently was well aware of this fact in the past and should now
openly address it.”
Axel Schäfer,
deputy chairman of Germany’s Social Democrats, added: “The
Guardian’s coverage shows that Theresa May is currently arguing
against her own convictions. In May she passionately warned a group
of bank managers about the dangers of Brexit.
“Leaving the EU is
going to be neither a political or economic success: Theresa May
recognised this as recently as a month before the referendum. Why she
didn’t show a similar engagement for the remain campaign in public
remains a mystery. That’s not how you show responsibility and
leadership in politics”.
Later, David Jones,
a minister in the Brexit department, was forced to defend the prime
minister’s comments in a select committee hearing when pressed by
Labour MP Stephen Kinnock.
“I think really
that the battle of the referendum is now over and various members of
the government adopted various positions during the campaign,” he
said.
“The fact is the
government is now determined to deliver British withdrawal and we
have the fullest possible support from all elements of the civil
service in achieving that.”
May also faced
embarrassment as Mark Garnier, a trade minister, declined to repeat
her trademark phrase that “Brexit means Brexit”, telling the
BBC’s World at One that it “doesn’t give that much clarity”.
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