A deal at last! Now give it a fair chance

YESTERDAY we reached a point in the Brexit talks that many had begun to believe would never come. Against seemingly insuperable odds, Theresa May agreed a draft deal with Brussels which, if accepted, should both honour the referendum result and ensure that our departure will be orderly and amicable.

So how deeply unedifying that even before anyone outside the Cabinet had seen the 500-page document – let alone read it – hardline backbench Brexiteers raised an orchestrated wail of hysteria against it.

True, nobody pretends the fine print will be to everyone’s taste. This was always going to be a pipe-dream in a country split down the middle (and that’s not to mention the EU’s determination to drive as hard a bargain as possible).

But level-headed Leave voters should surely draw comfort from Mrs May’s passionate assurances, repeated on Monday night at the Lord Mayor’s banquet: ‘This will not be an agreement at any cost.

‘Any deal must ensure we take back control of our laws, borders and money. It must secure the ability to strike new trade deals around the world. And it must also be a deal that protects jobs, our security and our precious Union.’

Meanwhile, backers of Remain should surely be cheered that if the deal goes through, we will maintain close links with our nearest neighbours, with none of the unforeseeable consequences of a ‘cliff-edge’ Brexit that so many have long dreaded.

Indeed, millions on both sides of the argument will have rejoiced over this huge progress, won by the Prime Minister’s dogged refusal to be deflected from the nation’s interests by the brickbats hurled at her from all sides, at home and abroad.

At the very least, her critics in Parliament owe it to her to take a long, hard, considered look at these proposals before shooting their mouths off, demanding resignations and threatening to topple her.

Just one question: how would it help their cause if they succeeded in ousting her? Her successor would be left in charge of the same divided country, confronting the same obdurate Brussels and the same Parliamentary arithmetic.

Or do they want an election – raising the nightmare possibility of a Marxist Government, changing its mind about Brexit from one day to the next?

Brexiteers go on endlessly about respecting the ‘people’s will’. The people’s will today is to get Brexit over and end the uncertainty. For the people’s sake, give Mrs May’s hard-won deal a chance.