More than two months after the unprecedented decision to leave the European Union sent shockwaves around the world, destabilized financial markets, and toppled former Prime Minister David Cameron, Brits are still no closer to knowing when they'll actually no longer be a part of the 27-nation bloc.
In order to leave, the UK government must invoke Article 50 of the EU Lisbon Treaty, which is needed to trigger the two-year process to leave the EU.
However, Prime Minister May has given no indication on when she will do this, with some sources claiming that negotiations could face years of delays.
And it's this lack of momentum that a clique of pro-Brexit ministers said on Monday, is simply unacceptable. Her indecision is also deepening the cracks in her cabinet.
@DavidJo52951945 If she doesn't carry out the wishes of the majority she/party won't get elected again
— john fealey (@charliecook11) August 21, 2016
Most senior among them is Iain Duncan Smith, the former leader of the Conservative Party and work and pensions secretary.
He's demanding that Mrs. May invokes Article 50 at the beginning of 2017 at the latest.
In a column for the newspaper the Sun on Sunday, he called Brits who still reject the Brexit referendum result "arrogant."
He claimed that much of the antipathy against Brexit is motivated by people who believe that those who voted to leave the EU are intellectually inferior.
"While such arrogant sentiments are expected in the heat of a campaign of such power and scale, what has characterised the aftermath is that so many of those who campaigned to remain continue to believe the result was illegitimate because of whom they believe voted to leave," Mr. Smith wrote.
"[However] It is clear that the referendum was not a suggestion."
Mrs. May supported the losing Vote Remain side in the referendum.
Some of her Euroskeptic ministers are said to be concerned that she may prefer a more limited departure from the EU. In particular, Iain Duncan Smith campaigned for the UK to leave the European single market.
"What they didn't vote for was EU-lite, or for their Government to engage in negotiations where we bend the knee to Brussels and beg for some concessions whilst remaining in a customs union all the while subject to European law," he said.
"Being outside [the single market] returns control over laws and borders and frees the UK from EU regulations, its external tariff and allows us, as a service sector economy, to position ourselves globally, set our trade deals and compete internationally, particularly in financial services."
However, government sources have told the British newspaper the Sunday Times, that so unprecedented was the Brexit vote, that the UK does not yet have the necessary infrastructure to handle the transition. May has created a new Brexit department from scratch, but it is reportedly not ready or fully staffed.
London Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan has even urged May to wait until after the German and French 2017 elections, to give civil servants more time to prepare, claiming that it will boost the chances of Berlin and Paris backing a good deal for Britain.
He said: "If we serve notice too quick to quit there's no guarantee jobs won't leave.
"I know for a fact there are people from Paris, Berlin, Dublin courting business leaders as we speak."
@JASEMARKRUTTER It just proves that the EU is all about benefitting political careers, not about benefitting European people. #Brexit
— +++Stephen Gash+++ (@Stephen_Gash) August 17, 2016
However, Iain Duncan Smith rejected such calls to wait for the French and Germans as "another attempt to turn this referendum result into a 'neverendum.' "
Mrs. May took power in July promising "to unite our party and our country."
But with such obvious bitter divisions, there is a great deal of uncertainty over how she could go far enough to satisfy the victorious Brexit campaigners in her cabinet, and still reassure the 48% of Brits who voted against leaving the EU at all.
