Put national interest before Brexit dogma

Theresa May’s cabinet will gather at Chequers today to thrash out a Brexit strategy and the Prime Minister will be desperate to avoid the country-estate turning into a sack within which her ferret-like ministers can continue fighting. It has been almost 106 weeks since the UK voted to leave the European Union, 66 weeks since Mrs May started the countdown to departure day by triggering Article 50 and, with 38 weeks to go until we secede from the EU, the cabinet is still trying to settle on its negotiation position. The Conservative leader must now take back control of her own party and emerge from this latest summit with a clear and defined position that will form the basis of its bartering with Brussels. To do anything else would be a dereliction of duty. She is under pressure from various wings of her group at Westminster, as well as the Scottish and Welsh governments, all of whom have different demands. There is no chance of everyone being happy and Mrs May might even have to deal with high-profile resignations if people throw their toys out of the Brexit bus, but to have any chance of achieving an EU exit that does not damage the country she must show strength and finally spell out what the UK wants beyond platitudes and sound bites. It will not be easy – little of Mrs May’s premiership has been – but now is the time for her, and her ministers, to ditch ideological dogma in the name of national interest.