Worrying lack of progress on Brexit

It is now 16 months since the vote to leave the European Union. Plenty of time to make some decent progress, one might think.

The reality is somewhat different.

That the UK Government had failed to properly prepare for a Leave vote is well established. It was an act of breathtaking complacency that probably cost then prime minister David Cameron his job.

A new premier was duly appointed, with overseeing a smooth and successful Brexit the main — some would argue only — mission.

So why is it that progress has been quite so glacial? Certainly some of our European brethren have been less than helpful, but that could surely have been anticipated.

We are told a top team is working on it and that a “good Brexit” will be secured.

And yet it is hard to escape the feeling that the Westminster Government is riven by internal conflict.

The kind of single-minded, determined attitude required to see this difficult period through appears to be conspicuous only by its rather alarming absence.

Questions over leadership are pervading the Tory conference.

Theresa May needs to address her party’s internal issues as a matter of urgency. Only then will the kind of Brexit we have been promised become a reality.