RAF tackles Russian jets in our skies

This was always a hard sell, now it’s virtually impossible

THERESA May travelled to Salzburg hoping to hear the sound of compromise. But she left with a loud and prolonged raspberry ringing in her ears.

The Chequers plan for Brexit was not only bluntly rejected, the PM was told she has less than four weeks to come up with an alternative proposal.

Her pet Chequers project is unloved by everyone: Tory Brexiteers, Tory Remainers, Labour and all of the EU.

Any humane owner would put it out of its misery but the PM still intends to take her battered proposal to Conservative Party conference.

This was always going to be a hard sell to a party packed with Brexiteers. It now looks like an impossible one. There is still a slim hope the hard line taken by the EU in Salzburg was a piece of brinkmanship in negotiations that were always going to go to the wire.

But Mrs May is running out of road. If she makes any further concessions to Brussels on Chequers it will prompt a revolt by Tory Brexiteers.

Their alternative is leaving without a deal, an act of selfharm for which no Prime Minister would be forgiven.

The dilemma has not changed. People voted for Brexit but nobody can agree on what form it should take.

With Mrs May unable to find a solution, it increasingly looks like only Parliament can decide.

Read more at mirror.co.uk/ authors/jason-beattie