We’ve had the details ... now get to work

HER critics have caterwauled for months about wanting more detail about her negotiating position on Brexit. Yesterday, that’s exactly what she gave them.

For the best part of an hour, theresa May rattled off her objectives in a huge number of areas: agriculture, fisheries, migration, the irish border, manufacturing, financial services, energy, science, haulage, nuclear safety, education, culture... you name it. What emerged was a pragmatic, common sense approach behind which she has managed to unite colleagues as diverse as gloomy europhile Philip Hammond and buccaneering Brexiteer Boris Johnson.

Yes, in some areas we are bound to remain closely aligned with our partners’ rules and trading standards. But as she pointed out, this is true of every trade deal ever struck.

Crucially, however, the red lines the Prime Minister drew from the start remain intact. Come what may, we will be taking back control of our borders, laws and money – with a sovereign Parliament and British courts no longer obliged to take orders from Brussels or European judges.

For the avoidance of doubt, Mrs May spelt out yet again that this will mean leaving the single market and customs union. and, no, there will be no second referendum. the die is cast. no ifs, no buts.

What a contrast with the unprincipled shambles of Labour’s new position, in which Jeremy Corbyn wants Britain in ‘a’ customs union (not ‘the’ customs union, but a fantasy of his own, which he ludicrously claims will give us all the advantages of both staying in the EU and pulling out).

Of course, fanatical Remoaners – tony Blair, sir John Major, Lord Heseltine, the hysterical CBi and the rest – will keep demanding more ‘clarity’, while stepping up this week’s concerted attempts to revive Project Fear. But nothing will satisfy them, short of crawling to Jean-Claude Juncker and begging him to take us back.

as for the rest of us, most will heartily endorse the Prime Minister’s clarion call to the EU: ‘We have a shared interest in getting this right. so let’s get on with it.’