Editorial: Brexit on few lips but on most British voters minds

Neither of the Tories' former partners supports British PM Boris Johnson on Brexit. Photo / AP

Editorial

EDITORIAL

Britain is little more than 10 days from an election that will be another referendum on Brexit. The main parties and pundits are not presenting it in those terms because the issue divides both parties and makes punditry difficult, and voters are sick of the subject. But a subject voters do not want to talk about is sometimes going to be the decisive issue for them when they go into the ballot box, and they know it.

Opinion polls have had Boris Johnson's Conservative Party comfortably in the lead since the election was called. Johnson hardly needs to remind voters that he intends to ensure Brexit happens, so is spending more time and energy on subjects such as the National Health Service, where Tories are less trusted and possibly vulnerable.

He is also spending more time in traditional Labour territory such as the North of England where Labour-held constituencies voted for Brexit in the 2016 referendum. However, the newly formed Brexit Party, previously the UK Independence Party, is also fielding candidates in Labour constituencies which could split the "Leave" vote and help Labour retain them.

At the other end of the Brexit spectrum, the Liberal Democrat Party, the only party promising to rescind the application to leave the European Union, is picking up members and supporters from the Tories in the Southeast. The Lib-Dems have formed an alliance with two other small anti-Brexit parties, the Greens and Plaid Cymru.

But those parties are unlikely to win enough seats in a first-past-the-post system to play a decisive role in the next Parliament unless Labour and the Conservatives are almost tied. Although that has happened in two recent elections, forcing the Conservatives into coalition with the Lib-Dems and later a governing arrangement with Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, it looks less likely this time.

Neither of the Tories' former partners supports Johnson on Brexit. But nor is a Labour-led coalition looking possible on polls so far. Labour under Jeremy Corbyn is offering the most socialist programme of change Britain has seen in decades with nationalisations of major utilities and higher taxes on wealth and business.

On Brexit, it promises a second referendum within six months of taking office and says it will decide whether to back Leave or Remain after seeking a new deal with the EU. Thus it is essentially inviting Britain to go through another period of uncertainty and indecision with an opportunity to abandon Brexit if no deal can be done.

Labour's problem may be that the public is having its second referendum now. Johnson has gone to the country with a better deal from the EU than many expected. Weary voters, facing their third general election in five years, their second since the referendum, may be resigned to leaving the EU and just want to get it done. If so, Johnson will be back with a much stronger mandate to leave.