Mrs May’s Brexit deal moves to its endgame

FOR months (and yes we know it must have felt like years) the Mail has passionately argued that Theresa May’s much-derided deal is the only viable Brexit option on the table.

It’s far from perfect but, as we have consistently said, it offers the best way to deliver the Brexit the people voted for and for which this paper campaigned.

Vast swathes of the country, as recent polling shows, agree with us. But that Brexit – indeed any form of Brexit – is in grave danger of being crushed by self- regarding MPs who put their own vanity and ambition before the national interest.

For make no mistake, this is Mrs May’s last throw of the dice. Those MPs who reject her plan for an orderly Brexit should be careful what they wish for. The alternative could be chaos.

With the Parliamentary arithmetic stacked so heavily against her, the Prime Minister’s decision yesterday to delay voting on her deal, pending fresh discussions with European leaders about how to solve the dilemma of the Northern Ireland ‘backstop’, was inevitable.

In a day of high drama, she faced down a fractious and unruly Commons. Through the din, she spoke with clarity and composure, maintaining her usual dignity throughout.

If only the same could have been said of her opponents. At times it seemed Mrs May was the only grown-up in the House.

There was constant braying from the Labour benches and her own rebels, infantile mockery from Scottish Nationalists and a bizarre, incoherent rant from Jeremy Corbyn, who came across as little more than a rambling, cantankerous old man. Then there was Jacob Rees- Mogg, supposedly a model of good manners, who was already tweeting that his leader should resign before she had even sat down (so much for old-fashioned courtesy).

Even Remain-supporting Speaker John Bercow got in on the act. Instead of trying to help the House move quickly towards a procedural solution, he tried to cajole the Government into having a wholly unnecessary vote on the deferral – which would have served only to delay matters still further.

All in all, a truly unedifying spectacle. Is it any wonder the ordinary voting public’s opinion of our politicians is so low?

So what now? From tonight, the resolute Mrs May will undertake a whistle-stop tour of visits to EU leaders.

She has spoken to some already, and believes they are ‘open to discussion’ on the idea of providing fresh assurances on the Irish border.

But the truth is we are approaching the endgame for Mrs May’s deal and seeing it through remains a daunting task.

In Parliament yesterday, she threw down the gauntlet to the wreckers, on both sides of the political divide, who have tried to thwart her plan at every turn.

‘Does this House want to deliver Brexit?’ she asked. ‘Because there will be no enduring or successful Brexit without compromise on both sides.’ If you have a better plan, she added, let’s see it.

And there is the heart of the matter. As we have said often in this column, the May deal is the only one on the table. And with just over 100 days until we leave the EU, the clock is fast running down.

The Prime Minister goes to Brussels on Thursday in good faith in a genuine attempt to solve this truly perilous, dangerous impasse. With a no-deal disaster looming ever larger, the EU would be foolhardy to ignore her warnings.

And on her return, MPs must examine any new safeguards she brings back with an open mind – rather than the deeply unpatriotic cynicism so many of them have shown so far.