This deal allows us to fight for what we want

Mrs May’s agreement has extracted concessions from the EU and means we can take tough lines in future

For months now the EU has been demanding that we make “sufficient progress” in our Brexit negotiations. To Eurocrats this has a specific meaning: Britain getting ever closer to the EU’S position. But as I wrote in last Thursday’s Daily Telegraph, we have also been watching for sufficient progress from them. If they do not demonstrate they are worth negotiating with, or if they try to extract too high a price from us, we can, and should, walk away.

I now believe they have shown that progress. The draft agreement reached by Theresa May does not make me jubilant, but nor do I feel betrayed. The EU has budged on several crucial points, and the way is now open to discuss a proper freetrade agreement that the British people voted for.

Last Monday the draft agreement was not fit for purpose. It left open the possibility that Northern Ireland might have a separate position to the rest of the UK, which was unacceptable. It also contained the widest possible interpretation of the UK’S “regulatory alignment” after we leave. There was genuine concern the EU would try to exploit this vague language to keep us inside the single market and customs union in all but name. Now, the language is more closely locked to the Irish situation and to maintaining the Good Friday Agreement. It requires alignment only if no other solution can be found.

There were also very real concerns about the role of the European Court of Justice after we leave. There was no specific end date to the arrangement where the UK Supreme Court could refer to the ECJ for clarification on citizens’ rights. Don’t get me wrong: I am among those who feel that the sooner we leave the power of the ECJ the better. But if it does have a residual role to do with EU citizens then it must have a clear end date. Last week it was open-ended; now it has been strictly limited to eight years. Furthermore, the Prime Minister has also won the right to conduct security checks on EU citizens who apply to stay here after Brexit, which was not clear before.

Most importantly, though, all this can be torn up tomorrow, because “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed”. This is in effect an indicative text, whose purpose is to get us to the next phase of discussions. That is when the shadow boxing of this past year will turn into real hard pounding. Of great importance will be our right to diverge from the EU on regulation, to follow rules we deem are in the best interest of the British people, and to have charge of our own trading policy. On these there will be heavy punches thrown. The important thing is, we now have space to have that debate.

Some Leavers are crying betrayal and believe they have been sold out. I think that is incorrect. Of course everything is a betrayal if you think we should simply leave without any deal whatsoever. I have never been of that persuasion. I have always believed the EU and the UK would strike some kind of deal, and a good free-trade deal would be the best option. So if we do want such a deal then we will have to accept some negotiation and compromise. While this agreement is not ideal, it doesn’t stop us from taking tough lines where we need to. It simply gets us through the first round, and I believe it has left us in a better than we were last Monday, for it has opened the door to a deal.

There is another prize which may have escaped notice in all the flurry of reaction. It’s not in the text but in the eyes of the EU negotiators. I believe the Prime Minister’s real success is that we got to see into the mind of the EU. Having egged on the Irish before last Monday, they got a genuine fright when the agreement was rejected. This had not occurred to them and I believe it worried them.

Had they genuinely not cared about a free-trade deal, as they had been indicating over the past few months, then they would have shrugged and said: “See you next year.” They didn’t. They moved quickly into action with the UK to modify and change what needed to change to secure that agreement (notice how the earlier triumphalism of the Irish subsided).

This is because the EU wants a free-trade agreement just as much as we do. Remember, it is a big step for any Eurocrat to make even a small concession, and the fact that they have done so exposes their real attitude. That is a good thing to know as we move into these next crucial six months.