Persistence pays off on Brexit for British PM

The Brexit deal is a personal success for Prime Minister Theresa May, after months of tough negotiations conducted while also battling with her own side – but any relief could be short-lived. Supporters hailed May’s determination and resilience in concluding Britain’s biggest peacetime negotiations even as critics in her Conservative party repeatedly brought her government to the brink. She has compared herself to her cricketing hero Geoffrey Boycott who “just relentlessly went for his goal”. The vicar’s daughter has survived longer than few thought possible in the wake of the June 2017 disastrous election, where she lost her majority in the House of Commons.

For many colleagues May also lost her authority that day, and she has endured repeated criticism of her Brexit strategy from eurosceptic MPs in the party. Yet she survived a stream of high-profile resignations – including foreign minister Boris Johnson and two Brexit ministers – and a leadership challenge launched over the Brexit deal fizzled out with a whimper.

“Against the odds she goes on,” one EU diplomat told AFP, while a female Conservative MP noted: “All the men have walked off that pitch. She’s not walking off.” But eurosceptics accuse her of bowing to pressure from the EU, undermining her early promises of a clean break by signing a deal that keeps Britain potentially aligned to the bloc for years to come.

She argues this is the best deal that can be negotiated, but it is widely opposed in London and could well be voted down by parliament. “She’s like a ship’s captain who can see an iceberg ahead but won’t change course – even when members of the crew leap overboard,” one cabinet insider told The Sun on Sunday.

May was chosen by MPs to replace David Cameron in the chaotic aftermath of the 2016 vote to leave the EU. She had opposed Brexit but moved within months to begin the process, vowing a clean break with the bloc. But her plans were turned upside down when a snap election, called to capitalise on her huge polling lead against left-wing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, left her party with fewer seats.

The setback, which many blamed on her own poor performance on the campaign trail, left the Conservatives reliant on Northern Ireland’s right-wing Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to govern. Since then, her party’s pro- and anti-Brexit factions have repeatedly tested her weakness as they seek to influence her strategy, while the DUP is now threatening to reject the deal. Each time, the would-be rebels have proved unwilling to deal the fatal blow, however.

Keeping May “still suits many people in the Tory party”, said Charles Grant of the Centre for European Reform (CER). Pro-European MPs fear a hardline Brexiteer could take over, while “the leavers don’t agree on who should replace May” if she is forced out. However, if parliament rejects the deal, she is likely to face an immediate challenge to her leadership. May, 62, studied geography at the University of Oxford, where she met her husband Philip, a banker, after reportedly being introduced by future Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto.

Not long after their marriage, May’s vicar father died in a car accident, followed a year later by her mother, who had multiple sclerosis. She still goes to church regularly, enjoys hiking holidays with her husband, cooking for friends and reading detective novels.

She eschews gossip and networking, proving herself through hard work, spending six years in the tough job of interior minister before entering Downing Street. Her reserved nature often makes for stilted relations with world leaders and voters, with her style of repeating the same phrases and avoiding direct questions earning her the nickname “Maybot” in the media. When she lets down her guard, however, many Conservative members warm to her – and she is belatedly learning to use that. Weeks after a clip of her awkward dancing during a trip to South Africa went viral, she arrived for her speech at her party conference with a little jig to the tune of disco hit “Dancing Queen”. But it will be the serious business of Brexit that will ultimately define her place in history.