Labour and Tories: Axis of Brexit

It's 2017. The country is still trying to find a new way forwards following the divisive Brexit vote last year. A general election has been called by Theresa May who is looking to boost her own control and domestic power. Surely Brexit must be the key issue at the heart of this crucial moment to determine the national future?

Wrong.

The reality instead is that a cosy consensus exists between the two main parties resulting in Brexit policies that appear to be identical. It should be recognised that part of this is due to the fact that neither party is offering much content in their Brexit policies. Both have essentially decided that 'wanting the best possible deal' is some sort of extraordinary revelation and that voters owe them their support on that basis alone. Their policies are therefore similar due to a sheer lack of what might be rightfully called 'policy'.

Nonetheless, on a few key issues, the two main parties have both decided that, if elected, they will pursue the same objectives for Brexit.

1. The end of freedom of movement. Not surprising for the Conservatives, but a disappointment for many on the left who actually support the EU law that guarantees a certain set of rights for all EU citizens, British included.

2. Leaving the Single Market. Having championed its benefits for many decades and played a key role in its construction, the Conservatives appear to have suddenly decided that it's not that important (presumably meaning that they think Thatcher did a poor job in creating it?) and that it's certainly not worth staying in if it means continuing freedom of movement. 

3. Leaving the Customs Union. If we're brutally frank, it's highly unlikely that many people actually know the difference between the customs union and the single market. At best we can hope that whoever forms the next government knows that there is a difference, the idea they might understand what that difference is seems beyond the realm of possibility. 

These main points mean that, whatever other policies may come forward to do with Brexit (a difference seems to have appeared over membership of Euratom for example), both Labour and Conservatives will be offering essentially the same thing. Some version of the hardest Brexit possible. 

Some years down the line, it will seem peculiar that both main parties were so rapidly and instinctively committed to ensuring that Britain have the most distant relationship with its neighbours as possible, taking it from the heart of Europe to the furthest periphery.