May’s exit won’t halt Britain’s slow drift into a kind of Brexit civil war | Martin Kettle

This crisis would have tested a Cromwell or a Lloyd George. It will not be resolved by a new leader but only by parliament

Be clear which of the current crises in British politics matters more in the long term. This isn’t easy right now, when the prospect of a Conservative leadership contest inevitably triggers a Tory party and media frenzy. Nevertheless, Brexit is the root of the matter. That fact didn’t change after Theresa May addressed the 1922 Committee tonight, and it isn’t going to go away. The Tory succession battle is ephemeral by comparison.

It has long been obvious that May would not see the year out in Downing Street. Her announcement merely restated this more plainly, and without giving a date for her departure. The leadership battle later this summer is a direct consequence of the unresolved Brexit crisis that May has created over the past three years – but it is not in any way the solution to it.

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