This dogged lady’s not for rolling over

LEADING a divided party in a divided Parliament and country, she has one of the toughest tasks to face any Prime Minister in living memory. But there’s a dogged resilience about Theresa May that commands respect from both sides of the Brexit argument.

A lesser leader might have been driven to despair by the abominable rudeness of France’s Emmanuel Macron and the contemptuous way European Council President Donald Tusk dismissed her proposals for a trade deal this week.

But yesterday, the Prime Minister confronted the arrogance of the EU elite with unyielding, level-headed reason.

In a rebuke that should shame Mr Tusk, after his fatuous attempt at humour with his ‘sorry, no cherries’ online post, she declared: ‘Throughout this process, I have treated the EU with nothing but respect. The UK expects the same.’

Yes, she understood that Brussels could not accept anything that threatened the integrity of the EU. But in return, the Eurocrats needed to understand she could not agree to any deal that split the UK by driving a wedge between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

She was unshakeable, too, in her resolve to pull out of the European Economic Area and the customs union. Anything less, she said, would make a mockery of the 2016 referendum by tying us to EU rules and uncontrolled immigration, while preventing us from striking trade deals of our own.

With welcome magnanimity, she went on to assure the 3million-plus EU citizens in Britain: ‘You are our friends, our neighbours, our colleagues. We want you to stay.’

It’s now up to Brussels to match her statesmanship and goodwill with proposals of its own, which respect not only Britain’s democratic decision but 500million Europeans’ need to keep trade flowing smoothly after Brexit.

For make no mistake. The EU’s shabby behaviour in Salzburg cannot mask the truth that our 27 partners need us – our markets, security expertise, financial services and £39billion divorce settlement – quite as much as we need them.

If Mr Tusk and Co think their brinkmanship will persuade Mrs May to roll over, they should think again. As Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab put it yesterday, they are messing with the wrong Prime Minister.