With numerous governmnent-created scandals currently unfolding, and an incredibly difficult Brexit negotiations tearing divides into her increasingly forlorn and ever-revolving Cabinet, Theresa May’s minority government is, unquestionably at its most precarious state since the fateful General Election results were announced last June.
And to make things even worse, following numerous high-profile Cabinet departures, the Prime Minister has just seen her last remaining human shield depart the Home Office – a situation that, politically-speaking, means Theresa May really is now on her last legs.
Today’s PMQs really was the ‘open goal’ that media pundits often talk about, and routinely criticise the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn for supposedly failing to convert. There was an abundance of extremely searching topics that the Labour leader could have focused on – from the latest Windrush revelations implicating the Prime Minister, to rampant Tory Islamophobia – but it was the Brexit negotiations that Corbyn decided to focus on with all six of his questions. And boy, did his forensic persistence pay off!
The Tories are clearly fiercely divided over how Britain should leave the EU – summed up with the Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s latest unprecedented criticism of Theresa May’s strategy, calling her Customs Union plans ‘crazy’.
Not only did Johnson’s criticism come despite him being a Cabinet member and having a duty to toe the party line, it came despite him literally signing up to the very strategy he has now verbally rebuked!
Furthermore, mainly due to the fact that they fail to properly address the problem of a hard border in Ireland, the EU has actually ruled out both the option that May is proposing, and the one that Johnson appears to prefer:
Hello. This is a public service announcement. Every customs option the British government is currently debating has already been ruled out by the EU.
— Ian Dunt (@IanDunt) May 8, 2018
Yes – the Tories are an utter shambles – and Jeremy Corbyn certainly didn’t let Theresa May off the hook at today’s PMQ’s!
Not only did Theresa May fail to answer a single question (as per usual), there was a palpable lack of verbal support from her Cabinet or backbenchers. By the end of proceedings, May had been visibly transformed by Corbyn’s forensic examination into a gibbering wreck, attempting to reel off nonsensical and completely unrelated statistics amid desperately nervous verbal stutters that belied a Prime Minister who is now finally being submerged beneath the toxic sludge of her own failures.
And, in a welcome break from routine, the entire mainstream media – from right to left – was unanimous about Corbyn’s blistering destruction of the Prime Minister over Brexit:
Corbyn clearly winning this with sharply-scripted questions that May is unable to answer. #PMQs
— George Eaton (@georgeeaton) May 9, 2018
Corbyn won #PMQs by
6-0. May was left gasping like a stranded goldfish, her mouth moving but no answers emerging.
She needs to find Cabinet unity on postBrexit customs – and fast.— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) May 9, 2018
Jeremy Corbyn really nailing prime minister on "shambles" of Brexit negotiations. He asks how govt can say its putting jobs first "when cabinet ministers are more interested in putting their own careers first. May looks uncomfortable. #PMQs
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) May 9, 2018
Clear win for Jeremy Corbyn at #PMQs. Theresa May simply dodged his questions and failed to land a single blow. By focusing on a single topic – Tory splits on the customs union – he successfully highlighted the government's troubles.
— Sebastian Payne (@SebastianEPayne) May 9, 2018
Jeremy Corbyn just asked 6 questions and, unless I missed it, Theresa May didn’t give a single answer. #PMQs
— Kevin Schofield (@KevinASchofield) May 9, 2018
.@jeremycorbyn has exposed that the cabinet is nowhere near an agreement on future customs deal with EU. Bad day at the office for @theresa_may #PMQs
— Robert Peston (@Peston) May 9, 2018
Even the Independent’s notoriously anti-Corbyn Political Commentator John Rentoul was full of praise for the Labour leader – saying he made Theresa May look ‘really shifty on Brexit’, and called today’s PMQs Corbyn’s “best outing, possibly ever“.
And yes – before you ask – even the BBC couldn’t manage to reverse the reality of today’s PMQs!
You can watch Jeremy Corbyn turn Theresa May into a gibbering wreck in under 10 minutes, below: