Thread by @FisherAndrew79

#OnThisDay 3 years ago, after six weeks of negotiations, Theresa May made a Statement to the House of Commons as cross-party Brexit talks with Labour ended without agreement

Two days later May resigned. Johnson would become PM and the rest is history

This is what happened…🧵

Corbyn wrote to the PM on 17/05/19, stating

“While there are some areas where compromise has been possible, we have been unable to bridge important gaps

“The increasing weakness of your government means there cannot be confidence in securing whatever might be agreed between us”

However, that is not to say there was not some willingness to compromise on both sides

A deal was theoretically possible, but practically undeliverable (Oliver Eagleton's recent book acknowledges the first, but obscures the second)

Let me explain …

On 2 April 2019, nearly two years after she had lost her majority and after her Withdrawal Agreement had been defeated in the Commons for the 3rd time, Theresa May accepted she did not have a majority for her deal

She made a statement asking Labour to enter talks. We did…

Parliament was at an impasse

May’s deal had been defeated for a 3rd time

Other options had all lost the week before talks
❌May’s deal + a customs union by 8 votes
❌May’s deal + a public vote by 27 votes
❌Labour’s Brexit plan by 70 votes
❌Common Market 2.0 by 95 votes

So…

A short meeting was held between Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May, attended by 3-4 senior MPs & staff on both sides

Jeremy then appointed Keir Starmer & Rebecca Long Bailey to jointly lead our delegation, and me to be the staff lead, liaising with May's Chief of Staff Gavin Barwell

Soon after I got a call from Oliver Letwin, who I had met with a cross-party group of MPs, including @LucyMPowell, lobbying for their Common Market 2.0 plan

Letwin told me they are ‘desperate for a deal and will offer whatever you want’ - which I relayed to our negotiating team.

Such fulsome generosity was not forthcoming:

We now know from @GavinBarwell's memoir that Liam Fox and Jeremy Hunt threatened to resign if May gave way

But Geoffrey Cox had told Cabinet: “we should make a big, bold and generous offer to Labour to accept their terms for a deal”

The talks were detailed and constructive - with 8 plenary meetings of both teams, several 1:1 meetings between ministers and shadow ministers, and 'sherpa' meetings between officials at which officials led by Gavin Barwell and I would try to scope out the ground for compromises…

There was some progress on workers’ rights, more limited on environmental standards, but nothing meaningful on a customs union

Labour also proposed adding a confirmatory public vote to any deal. The Government refused, but Barwell's memoir reveals some in Cabinet were open to it

Was a deal possible? Yes, in theory.

If had been up to me & Gavin Barwell (or David Lidington & Rebecca Long Bailey) we could have agreed a deal that both our parties should've been able to bear

But …

Was a deal practically deliverable? No

Members of May’s Cabinet threatened to resign if she gave way on issues like customs;

And Labour’s 2018 conference motion had committed the party to campaign for a public vote in precisely the circumstances we had now reached

And any deal would not have stuck:

May’s “authority was eroded”, Barwell admits in his memoirs

“Labour were probably right that Theresa’s successor would have tried to wriggle out of any deal”

As @johnmcdonnellMP said, it was “like trying to enter into a contract with a company going into administration”

https://twitter.com/johnmcdonnellMP/status/1125014785563738112?s=20&t=9xvoA3hkkalzR0CCmnEv6w

Some on both sides entered into the talks in good faith, trying to find a possible deal.

Some, on both sides, were probably against any deal being done.

But ultimately any possible deal wouldn’t have got through Parliament and wouldn’t have stuck under May’s successor…

Jeremy Corbyn gave his damning verdict to the House of Commons on 22 May 2019

“For over two years the Prime Minister bullishly refused to consult the public or Parliament. She did not seek compromise

“And by the time she finally did, she had lost the authority to deliver”
🧵🔚