Theresa May’s first big test

5 takeaways on Theresa May’s first big test in parliament

The government passes the queen’s speech but faces a host of problems — and they aren’t going away.

By TOM MCTAGUE AND ANNABELLE DICKSON

Britain may have a government but how much control it has over parliament remains to be seen.

On Thursday evening, MPs voted by 323 to 309 — that’s a majority of 14 — in favor of the queen’s speech setting out the government’s pared-back, Brexit-focused agenda for the next two years.

A government that cannot pass a queen’s speech cannot govern, so it was an important milestone which could set Prime Minister Theresa May on course to stay in power for long enough to oversee Britain’s exit from the European Union.

But in order to do so the prime minister was forced to offer a major concession — a promise to provide funding for women forced to travel from Northern Ireland to Britain for an abortion. Abortion in Northern Ireland is only permitted to save the life of the mother, and if a Northern Irish woman travels to England for an abortion, she has to pay for it. A Labour backbench MP put forward an amendment calling for abortions to be free on the NHS for Northern Irish women and the government was almost certain to have suffered defeat, forcing it to make the last-minute financial offer.

It was an inauspicious start for a government which looks anything but strong and stable.

Here are five takeaways from another day of drama in the British parliament.

1. MPs empowered

It takes just seven rebel Tories and a united opposition to defeat the government. That is the new reality for the prime minister as she seeks to push through the most ambitious program of legislation in a parliamentary session in decades.

Labour’s Stella Creasy’s amendment ensuring Northern Irish women can have abortions for free in England was selected for a vote by the Speaker John Bercow — a man who knows how to cause mischief — and backed by more than 50 MPs from across the main political parties.

It was an example of how MPs can make life very difficult for the government over the next two years.

The government needs to pass eight separate pieces of legislation to smooth Britain’s exit from the European Union — including the central “repeal bill” downloading EU law on to the U.K.’s statute books.

A smart opposition could force concessions left, right and center.

2. Labour still split

Despite Jeremy Corbyn’s new-found authority, there remains a sizable chunk of his parliamentary party willing to defy him.

An amendment to the queen’s speech laid down by centrist former shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna on Thursday was backed by 49 Labour MPs, despite Corbyn instructing his party to abstain. Four shadow ministers were sacked from the frontbench for defying the party line — Catherine West, Ruth Cadbury and Andy Slaughter. A fourth, Daniel Zeichner, resigned in order to vote against the leadership.

The vote was the clearest indication since the election that the split in the party over Europe and Corbyn’s leadership is far from healed.

Anti-Corbyn Labour MPs are broadly keeping quiet for now, but privately expect battle to recommence with the leadership.

“He will overplay his hand,” said one Labour MP, who wished to remain anonymous. “He won’t be able to help himself.”

3. Five years to go

The PM will arrive at her next audience with the queen having delivered on her promise to form a government — and it withstood its first key parliamentary test.

May can be heartened that Conservative MPs fell into line relatively painlessly. Nobody wanted the infamy of bringing down the government and the fear of another general election, and potential Labour victory, has tempered post-election anger.

But to get to this point needed money, lots of it. The £1 billion “confidence and supply” deal bought the backing of 10 Democratic Unionist Party MPs, who were true to their word and supported the Tories.

To get to the end of this parliament, May (or the next Conservative leader, although the party doesn’t have an obvious election-winning personality to replace May) will likely face new demands from the DUP in exchange for queen’s speech support in two years’ time, after Britain leaves the EU.

Tory MP Bernard Jenkin summed it up by saying, “This is going to be the pattern. There were no nail-biting votes but the government will keep an ear open to genuine issues which backbenchers are concerned about.”

A week is currently a very long time in British politics, and five years is an eternity.

4. Single market is dead

The bell has finally tolled for Britain’s membership of the single market.

A strengthened Corbyn whipped his MPs to abstain on arch-moderate Umunna’s amendment calling for the U.K. to stay in the single market. The majority obeyed.

On the other side of the House of Commons, a Tory rebellion never materialized and the single marketeers’ short-lived post-election hope that Chancellor Philip Hammond’s renewed swagger might see a government change of heart was swiftly dashed.

While the dial has been turned down on the “no deal is better than a bad deal” rhetoric and up on talk of avoiding a cliff edge, Hammond has reiterated in recent weeks that Britain will be leaving the single market. He is pushing for a transition on customs arrangements.

With no appetite to fight a single market exit from the official opposition or internal opposition, Thursday marked the final nail in the coffin for hope of a single market change of heart.

5. Bye bye ‘Singapore Britain’

Twice in two days Corbyn attempted to embarrass the government on austerity. It was the subject he fought the election on and the subject his team believe will take him to Downing Street — even if they don’t all share his optimism that it will be in six months.

On Wednesday, a Labour amendment aiming to lift the cap on public sector pay increases was defeated by the government but not before causing chaos in Downing Street, headlines about a “U-turn on a U-turn,” and Tory MPs hitting the airwaves siding with Labour. It was smart politics by Corbyn.

On Thursday, another amendment by Corbyn, this time essentially calling for Labour’s manifesto to be enacted, was defeated without as much fanfare.

Despite Corbyn’s failure to win over any Tory rebels to his side on the amendments, the pressure to soften — or end — government austerity has intensified dramatically as a result of his election performance.

A radical anti-austerity Labour Party denying the Tories a majority has changed the rules of the game. The first victim is the government’s (already hard-to-believe) threat to rip up Britain’s European-style economy in the event of a “punishment Brexit” from Brussels. The idea of turning into a low-tax, small state Singapore is now, in effect, dead.

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