Britain's Prime Minister, Theresa May greets Arlene Foster, the leader of Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party in Downing Street in London, England, on June 26, 2017.
Theresa May was supposed to be the hardnosed, no-nonsense Prime Minister that Britain needed as the country headed for Brexit and faced a host of domestic challenges. Instead, because of a costly political miscalculation, Ms. May's leadership has been weakened so much that her tenure has been thrown into question, she's losing ground on Brexit and she's had to cut a controversial deal with a rival party just to keep a tenuous grip on power.
On Monday, Ms. May's weakness was keenly on display as she pushed ahead on two important fronts – offering a new proposal on Brexit concerning the rights of European Union nationals and striking a deal with the Democratic Unionists, or DUP, to give her Conservatives a slight majority in the House of Commons. She fell flat on both, reflecting her diminished clout inside and outside of Britain. And, amid all that, the government is still grappling with the fallout from the recent Grenfell Tower fire that killed at least 79 people and has led to a sweeping review of fire safety in more than 600 buildings across the country.
Ms. May's problems stem from a botched election campaign that she thought would deliver her Conservatives a landslide victory this month and give her a strong mandate to negotiate Brexit with the EU. But the Tories ended up losing seats and fell short of an overall majority, forcing Ms. May to scramble to put together a minority government.
She accomplished that on Monday thanks to the agreement with the DUP, which has pledged to vote with Ms. May's Conservatives to ensure they remain in power. The DUP won 10 seats in the election, just enough to give the Tories a small majority in the 650-seat chamber. But the deal came at a steep price.
In exchange for the DUP's support, Ms. May said the government will spend an additional £1-billion ($1.68-billion) over the next few years on programs in Northern Ireland including infrastructure projects, health-care services and access to broadband. The Prime Minister said the agreement "will enable us to work together in the interest of the whole United Kingdom, give us the certainty we require as we embark on our departure from the European Union and help us build a stronger and fairer society at home."
Critics immediately pounced, calling the agreement "shabby" and arguing that other parts of the country, including devolved governments in Scotland and Wales, should be entitled to similar funding.
"This Tory-DUP deal is clearly not in the national interest but in May's party's interest to help her cling to power," Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn said in a statement. "Cuts to vital public services must be halted right across the U.K., not just in Northern Ireland."
Added Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon: "In concluding this grubby, shameless deal, the Tories have shown that they will stop at nothing to hold on to power – even sacrificing the very basic principles of devolution."
Ms. May's Brexit plans also ran into trouble on Monday. She unveiled her long-awaited proposal to accommodate the 3.2 million EU citizens living in Britain after the country leaves the EU, but the plan got a cool reception from the EU negotiators. This was supposed to be a relatively straightforward issue in the talks, which began this month and are expected to last at least two years. However, it has become far more difficult for Ms. May largely because the EU senses her political vulnerability and is pushing back much harder.
Ms. May's plan would offer a path to citizenship for EU nationals after Brexit, but she has insisted that British courts oversee any dispute. The EU wants Britain to offer more rights and it has called for the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice to have jurisdiction over disputes.
"EU goal on citizens' rights: same level of protection as in EU law. More ambition, clarity and guarantees needed than in [Monday's] UK position," the EU's Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said on Twitter after Ms. May's announcement. The European parliament's Brexit negotiator, Guy Verhofstadt, said some progress had been made in the proposal, but he added that "a number of limitations remain worrisome and will have to be carefully assessed."
While the government tried to hang on to power and keep Brexit on track, Ms. May faced more criticism over her government's handling of the Grenfell Tower fire disaster.
She's been forced to apologize repeatedly for the poor initial response to the tragedy and she has now launched a sweeping plan to inspect the fire safety at high-rise buildings across the country. That includes testing the cladding on 600 social housing projects to see if they have the same flammable facade as Grenfell, which investigators have said likely caused the fire to spread rapidly. So far, the siding on 75 buildings has been tested and they all failed fire safety standards, leading some to anticipate that hundreds of buildings may need repairs.
Thousands of people in Camden, a borough in north London, have been ordered out of their buildings while the cladding is replaced, causing havoc among many residents who couldn't find a place to stay and resistance among some who refused to leave the building.
On Monday, the communities minister Sajid Javid said hospitals have been asked to have their siding tested as well as schools and other public buildings. He added that 15 government buildings are also at risk and he wants the owners of privately owned apartment buildings to conduct tests as well.
As Mr. Javid spoke, the company that sold the siding used on Grenfell, New York-based Acrconic Inc. – which was spun off from aluminum producer Alcoa earlier this year – announced that it has discontinued the product. "We believe this is the right decision because of the inconsistency of building codes across the world and issues that have arisen in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy regarding code compliance of cladding systems."
Paul Waldie