2019 political preview: Yorkshire MP says this year 'brings more uncertainty than I can remember'

There will be no shortage of issues for leaders to tackle in Yorkshire in 2019, but Brexit still looms large at national and regional level. Rob Parsons reports.

As the clock strikes 11pm on March 29, 2019, the UK will leave the European Union, bringing to an end the 46-year relationship with the continent and its state institutions.

Two-and-a-half turbulent years after the country’s seismic referendum vote, this simple statement is about as certain as it’s possible to be about the outcome of Brexit and what form it will take in the coming months.

And as politicians ready themselves for what is sure to be another bruising 2019 at Westminster, some believe the likelihood of Brexit itself never actually happening is growing as Theresa May’s beleaguered government struggles to get any kind of deal through a divided Commons.

What most can agree on is that Brexit is likely to dominate the political landscape in 2019 just as it has in the last 12 months, even if the final destination - be it no deal, a Norway-style solution, an extension of Article 50 or even a second referendum - remains uncertain.

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Reading the runes for the coming months, the views of three of the region’s MPs who spoke to The Yorkshire Post reflect the wide spectrum of opinions about which way things ought to go.

Conservative Kevin Hollinrake, representing Thirsk and Malton, believes Parliament will eventually see sense and approve a ‘soft landing’ Brexit in the face of alternatives that are “quite unthinkable.”

“If you take the politics out of this, most people think the PM’s plan is a sensible compromise”, he said. “All the others we look at probably won’t get through the House either. It is the least worst option but the one that will work.

“I hope over Christmas people will look at this and take a sensible view, though there will be some turbulence. Whoever is leader, this country will face very similar challenges.”

Fellow Yorkshire Tory Andrea Jenkyns, a member of the pro-Brexit European Research Group, is adamantly opposed to the Prime Minister’s proposed Brexit deal and says that as a net importer of goods, the UK has ‘nothing to fear from no deal’.