The UK in Article 50: Crisis Managing a Strategic Decision

The UK’s approach to withdrawal from the EU has been fraught, most evidently in the way it has undertaken the Article 50 process. In part, this is a function of the UK’s confused status between being a member state and a third country, but it also comes from the political and organisational decisions made by the British government. In particular, the failure of the government to successfully build or manage a robust domestic consensus meant that negotiating objectives within the formal talks with the EU were both under-defined and liable to domestic challenge at the point of ratification. The result has been a very significant disconnect between the technical pursuit of the Withdrawal Agreement and the political exigencies of the House of Commons, a situation driven and sustained by the absence of a dominant political narrative or faction. Even with the belated emergence of a new political constellation following the 2019 general election, the UK is likely to continue to suffer from the absence of a settled purpose behind Brexit and the deep political and social divisions that have followed the 2016 referendum.