You won! So get on with governing . . .

IS THE Government in danger of forgetting just how powerful it is? The Conservative Party won 13,636,690 votes, a huge 42.3 per cent of the British electorate, and a 5.5 per cent swing in its favour.

It swiftly negotiated a lasting confidence and supply agreement with the DUP, a perfectly reasonable and sustainable alliance with a compatible party which should last. It then won a crucial Commons vote on the Queen’s Speech.

Its front and back benches contain a wealth of experience of government. Its main rival, whose Shadow Cabinet is weak and unconvincing, has more than 50 fewer seats and, despite the craven collapse into Jeremy Corbyn’s arms of many Blairites, it remains profoundly divided.

The Tories are in charge. They have several urgent tasks, above all the Brexit negotiations in which resolve and unity are vital in that vast and hugely important game of diplomatic poker.

So can they please start acting as if they are in charge? It is perfectly reasonable for great parties to examine their fundamental beliefs in changing times. Labour did so in the 1990s, rather successfully. The Tories are going to have to do something about their lack of appeal to those under 35.

But this is surely not the moment for First Secretary Damian Green to launch into public speculation about university tuition fees and ‘discontent with capitalism’. The last Election is over. The next one, we very much hope, has not begun yet and will not for some years.

Now is the time for Tories to rally to the colours, to sustain and strengthen the Prime Minister and to concentrate on governing the country effectively. They did not, despite the impression ceaselessly given out by the BBC, lose the Election. Labour did not win it. It is at Westminster, not at Glastonbury, that the nation’s representatives gather to decide our fate.

Leadership is infectious. Action and activity are the best antidote to idle dissent and strife. Mrs May’s main concern must be to set a clear course for Brexit, taking into account the changed circumstances she faces, and then to drive that policy through, in such a way that the people of this country are united behind her, and the EU leaders in Brussels understand they are dealing with a serious nation that knows what it wants and means to get it.