The Observer view on the risks to Britain of a hard Brexit | Observer editorial

Theresa May is leading the country towards a total and economically calamitous EU divorce in 2018

By any measure, it has been a bad week for hard Brexiters and Theresa May's government. Problem is, the two have become all but synonymous. Thursday's shock byelection result in Richmond Park showed that the pro-Europe convictions of nearly half the country's voters cannot wisely be ignored. Conservative supporters were alienated by May's "pandering" to hardline party zealots and Ukip fellow travellers, the victorious Liberal Democrats claimed. "One of the things that concerns a great deal of people in this constituency is" the Conservative government seems to be shifting very rapidly towards the right," said Sarah Olney, the unashamedly Europhile winning candidate.

There is a widely shared perception that May, far from reuniting the country in the wake of the EU referendum, as she promised, is cementing and entrenching divisions. It would be wrong to see in the byelection outcome definitive proof that the national mood has radically shifted in the past six months. Most Richmond voters favoured Remain in June. But the scale of Tory defections suggests deep unhappiness with May's subsequent, lopsided approach. It is as though she and her ministers have wholly dismissed the views of the 48% who rejected Brexit, just as they arrogantly rejected last month's impartial, legally sound high court judgment that parliament must be consulted prior to the triggering of article 50.

Related: We're marching towards a mad Brexit. Someone must speak for the 48% | Jonathan Freedland

Related: Brexit: rising frustration across EU at Britain's unclear exit strategy

Continue reading...