UK government is grinding to a halt

Brexit is bringing government and policymaking in Whitehall and Westminster to a juddering halt. Since the June 2017 election, it has been increasingly clear that Theresa May and her ministers don’t have the capacity to contemplate much policy that isn’t connected with Britain’s departure from the EU. But the past few days have brought home how the business of government has slowed to a snail’s pace thanks in large part to the impasse over Mrs May’s Brexit deal. On April 12, chancellor Philip Hammond revealed that he can’t be sure of finalising the three-year spending review for government departments and local authorities over the summer. A new spending review is vital if Mr Hammond is to begin ending austerity. But he told reporters: “If we don’t have a [Brexit] deal done, the level of uncertainty that will remain probably makes it inappropriate to do a long-term spending review.” Yesterday, Downing Street admitted that another major setpiece parliamentary event for later this year could also be postponed: the Queen’s Speech setting out the government’s domestic legislation programme for the next year. There have been only five years since 1900 when a Queen’s Speech hasn’t taken place. The annual address is an important sign that a government has both a robust policy programme and a Commons majority to boot.