Bloodied but unbowed Mrs May f ights on

NO-ONE can pretend this week was anything other than a brutally difficult one for Theresa May.

On Monday she was forced to pull the plug on the Brexit vote in the knowledge that putting her deal before Parliament would end in certain defeat.

Barely 48 hours later came the bombshell news that after months of overestimating their support, the rebels had eventually mustered enough letters from Tory MPs to force a confidence vote in her leadership.

During a frantic day of arm-twisting, she bowed to pressure by accepting – in an emotional address to the 1922 Committee – that she would not fight the next election.

But she emerged from 10 Downing Street on Wednesday night victorious – and with nearly two thirds of her MPs backing her, it was a decisive win.

Then on Thursday she had to endure yet another ambush in Brussels. At a late night press conference, thirsty Luxembourger and European Commission President JeanClaude Juncker accused her of being ‘nebulous and imprecise’ when asking EU leaders to address concerns about the Northern Ireland backstop. She had been nothing of the sort.

Yesterday morning she showed her steel by confronting Mr Juncker in the full glare of the cameras, her handbag in her grasp. It was reminiscent of Margaret Thatcher at her most defiant.

So despite all her travails, Mrs May fights on, bloodied but unbowed.

She has demonstrated once again her tremendous reserves of resilience and fortitude and continues to display the confidence of a leader who knows the path she is taking is the right one.

Whether through ineptitude or malice on the part of EU leaders, there was no decisive outcome from the summit. But the battle is not over yet, and there is every indication that in the New Year Mrs May will get what she needs – an assurance that the Northern Ireland backstop will not endure indefinitely.

Any failure by the EU to offer concessions would be an act of monumental folly. It would risk an accidental no deal at a time when sclerotic European economies can ill afford the damage that would cause.

Would Emmanuel Macron further endanger the French economy (unemployment 9 per cent) when the country is engulfed by the ‘gilets jaunes’ riots?

Contrast the eurozone’s struggles with the UK, where unemployment is at its lowest since the 1970s and wages are rising at their fastest rate for a decade. The EU cannot afford to say ‘non’ any longer.

Next week the Parliamentary term ends. For a public tired of endless squabbling about Brexit this cannot come too soon. In the Commons on Monday Mrs May will have to endure howls of outrage from all sides that she has not – yet – secured the guarantees she sought.

Despite their coup attempt going down in flames, the hard-line Brexiteers will once again call for her to quit. When are they going to realise they lost and that Mrs May’s deal could be their last hope for leaving Europe?

Inevitably, Jeremy Corbyn will continue to blather senselessly, while lacking anything resembling a Brexit policy. Equally predictable is the continued peacocking of Nicola Sturgeon, desperate for attention in a debate where her plan is to ignore the votes of 17.4million people in the vain hope it will somehow make her crackpot Scottish independence dream a reality.

Meanwhile Mrs May – who more than ever appears to be the only adult in the room – will soldier on. She deserves the time, and space, to secure what assurances she can before putting them to Parliament.

And MPs from all sides – if they can stop their posturing for five minutes – should wait and consider these safeguards carefully before cynically dismissing them.