Saving Saint Theresa is a new national duty

THE British prime minister’s transformation from ‘dour and difficult woman’ to a resilient Saint Theresa began on Thursday and took hold in Ireland this weekend. Theresa May, a vicar’s daughter, plans to make good on the formal undertaking she made to avoid a hard border in Ireland – a promise that ruthless Tory Brexiteers seem hell-bent on breaking.

Saving Saint Theresa, who the Taoiseach praises as ‘true to her word’ for delivering to Ireland a better deal than anyone could have hoped for, is now a national imperative.

If Mrs May is removed as prime minister, her EU exit proposal leaves Britain – and Ireland – looking into the abyss threatened by a no-deal Brexit.

The bookies calculated her resignation before the end of December as a 55.6% chance on Friday, but the tide was turning fast in her favour.

An eclectic coalition wants the PM to persuade MPs to vote for her EU exit deal but she would not have been their first choice.

MRS May is a very private person with few confidantes and a rigorous sense of duty learned in a Church of England home in the Home Counties. She shuns the bars of Westminster, yet some very influential figures in politics, business and the media are moving heaven and Earth to keep her in 10 Downing Street.

And that is remarkable considering the deal she negotiated is less beneficial for the British people than the EU membership they decided to abandon in the 2016 referendum.

She insists that her decision to call an election after becoming Tory leader was a good one – even though she lost the party’s majority and needs the DUP’s votes to survive. Ms May has made many questionable decisions as prime minister and she is a very bad campaigner – but her failings make her success all the more remarkable.

She is lucky: often in the right place at the right time where good things happen coincidentally or, as her critics claim, despite her quirky judgment.

Cursed by ill-informed advisers and blessed by her enemies – mostly pointy-headed Brexiteers with bloated egos – Mrs May is now the only choice for sensible Tories, if not the ideal one.

Boris Johnson said ‘F*** business’ when advisers warned him that Brexit was bad for business – and his ilk are driven more by abstract ideology than practical experience.

Ms May is also fortunate that the Labour Party is nearly as distrusted by the electorate as her own party – and that Jeremy Corbyn is, in his own way, as hostile to the EU as any Tory Brexiteer.

Labour wants a general election and to renegotiate the EU exit deal – but the six tests that it insists on would require it to keep all the benefits of EU membership AND the luxury of being a non-member.

The EU may tinker with some small details to secure an exit deal for Britain but neither Mrs May nor Labour can expect another epic renegotiation.

Britain knows it has to make the most critical decisions since the Second World War for the benefit of both leavers and remainers.

But it is the most important political and economic challenge to this Republic since independence – and to secure our future we need Mrs May to survive and thrive.