Brexit is ruining Britain’s reputation in Europe

Analysis: Watching on from Brussels, EU leaders are getting the impression Britain can't be trusted to act responsibly, says Europe Correspondent Jon Stone

Theresa May is greeted by Dutch PM Mark Rutte on Thursday (Getty)

To those in Brussels, the mother of parliaments has never looked more juvenile. B​elieve it or not, many countries genuinely looked up to the UK as some sort of model parliamentary democracy. You could argue they were wrong to do this in the first place anyway: either way, they’re really not doing it now.

Speaking to foreign journalists in Brussels and London, you always get a sense that they are, more than anything, disappointed. One senior EU official, speaking after EU leaders stayed up all night to agree an Article 50 extension, spoke for a lot of people in the EU capital.

“Some said in the room that actually we give the impression that we are more responsible about this than the actors in the political theatre in the United Kingdom,” he said.

A few of the same aspects of UK political culture get mentioned by different people. The conduct in the Palace of Westminster – shouting – is often interpreted by some foreign observers that things aren’t being taken seriously. Mairead McGuinness, one of the European parliament’s debate moderators, has been known to admonish British MEPs with cries of: “This is not the House of Commons!”

The Eurosceptic parts of the British press are also often raised as particularly weird: for years Brussels has had a dedicated blog to debunking so-called “Euro myths” spread by tabloids (and sometimes broadsheets), mostly from Britain. But with Brexit the view that Britain simply does not understand its neighbours because of bad information and lack of attention is going more mainstream than ever.

Britain is genuinely treated as a bit unstable: officials talk about giving Theresa May political space to operating as if she is carrying some kind of bomb. These concerns were factored into leaders’ thinking when they decided how and whether to give the UK an Article 50 extension.

“On the one hand the UK has been behaving in accordance with the obligation of sincere cooperation until now,” one Brussels source familiar with their discussions says.

“And at the same time, we do also read the British press, and we have seen some comments that maybe we should take this opportunity to break the union from the inside.

“I don’t think that will be possible and I think any British government will understand that that’s not a promising way forward. We luckily have qualified majority voting on most issues these days and if we don’t, I’m sure we’d find ways of dealing with it if these things were to happen.”

Wherever the Brexit process ends up, one thing will never be the same: Britain’s political reputation.