The U.K. is backsliding on democracy. As a British member of the European Parliament, the spectacle has been particularly hard to watch.
The dramatic twists and turns of British politics these past few weeks have made it clear that no option can be ruled out when it comes to the U.K.’s long-term relationship with the EU — let alone who will govern the U.K. in the short term. “Literally anything could happen,” as one of my colleagues observed to me earlier this week.
Britain — and the future of its democracy — seems on particularly perilous footing. Seen from Brussels, there’s a bitter irony in this.
A British government that is threatening to march the country out of the European Union because it claims its institutions are “undemocratic” shut down its own country’s parliament last month. Prime Minister Boris Johnson uses incendiary language and accuses those who disagree with his Brexit policy of “terrible collaboration” with the EU.
Britain today is increasingly out of step with the basic principles of democracy it once would have championed.
There is no “new deal” on offer in Brussels, nor is the prime minister trying to negotiate one in good faith.
Last week’s U.K. Supreme Court ruling, which determined Johnson’s proroguing of parliament had been unlawful, was a landmark moment — and a bright spot in a worrying trajectory for British politics.
Sadly, the euphoria that followed masked deeper political problems. Parliament has required Johnson, by law, to seek an extension of Article 50 on or before October 19, if the Commons has not either endorsed a Brexit deal or given consent to the prime minister to proceed without one. And yet the prime minister continues to assert that the U.K. will leave on October 31 regardless.
Compare that with what’s happening in Brussels. While my British parliamentary colleagues were shut out of their chamber against their will, members of the European Parliament have been pressing on with urgent issues.
The European Parliament is scrutinizing the incoming Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s new team and has taken a strong stand against nominees with potential conflicts of interest. MEPs have also set an ambitious agenda to tackle the climate emergency and ensure that the EU’s member states uphold the rule of law — something our own government needs reminding of.
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson | Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images
Led by Britain, the EU helped catalyze the democratization of former Soviet states by offering a way into the biggest, borderless single market in the world. A critical part of that process was holding aspirant EU member states to the so-called Copenhagen criteria, which require “stable institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities.” The U.K. can only be a leader in the world if it continues to respect those same standards itself.
Once a trailblazer for the principles of open markets, human rights and the rule of law, the U.K. is now in danger of finding itself robbed of the right to moral leadership in all three areas. It is seeking divorce from the biggest market in the world, derogation from obligations on human rights and a “pick and mix” attitude to equality before the law.
Among my colleagues from around Europe, there is real and widespread concern for the state of our country, balanced only by optimism that Johnson may not be in office for long.
Incapable of being a serious prime minister in the first place, he has bulldozed ahead with a strategy that is not only politically perilous but illegal. There is no “new deal” on offer in Brussels, nor is the prime minister trying to negotiate one in good faith. Johnson is on yet another collision course with the law, and — in turn — with reality.
That’s why our 16-strong group of Liberal Democrat MEPs is busy lobbying European leaders to accept an extension when the inevitable request arrives, as well as the longer-term work of creating legislation designed to bring about a fairer, more exclusive economy and protect our planet.
Sadly, if Johnson gets his way, we’ll find ourselves locked out of a powerful vehicle for change and relegated to looking in from the outside as a great democratic project moves forward without us. Seeing the turmoil swallowing Britain, I know where I’d rather be.
Luisa Porritt is deputy leader of the U.K. Liberal Democrats in the European Parliament.