My party’s moderates must stand by Mrs May

IT STILL feels extraordinary to me that, speaking on her return to Downing Street from Buckingham Palace on Friday, Theresa May made absolutely no acknowledgement of the devastating verdict the voters had just delivered to her.

All she said was the Conservatives would work with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party to deliver an unchanged Brexit. What about the rest of her policies and the things that worry people in Britain today? What about a hint of apology for the cuts in police numbers, including armed response officers?

And instead of taking risks with the Northern Ireland peace process by allowing the DUP tail to wag the UK dog, what about working with all the other parties and the rest of Parliament to get the best deal for Britain in Europe? The Prime Minister simply does not understand what’s happened to her Brexit plan. She lost her majority. The plan lies in tatters.

We now have a new House of Commons that is not going to have an extreme Brexit forced down their throats. And MPs are not going to nod through her gargantuan Repeal Bill of EU legislation without full debate and argument.

The Prime Minister made a huge mistake by closing down all her EU negotiating options before the talks even began. She was wrong to decide that Britain should come out of the EU completely, including its customs union and single market – where half our exports go – rather than keeping one foot in the trade bloc, an option open to her.

And by framing her negotiating strategy within a set of rigid red lines, she has severely restricted her bargaining ability to get the best deal available. These red lines have been imposed by hardliners in her party and the press who want Brexit at any cost, whatever the consequences for jobs and prosperity in Britain.

The EU, in response, has offered a future trade deal as long as this is on terms acceptable to them. In effect, they are saying to Britain: ‘You can have your deal but you will have to respect our rules to get it.’

I hope the EU will be reasonable and business-like. The problem is that the Prime Minister is embarking on the negotiation of her life having tied her own hands.

Britain will leave the EU in March 2019 but in all probability we will need an additional two or three-year transition period. This will require compromise by Britain on a continuing role of the European Court of Justice and movement of people.

The wild men in her party have already started to agitate against accepting any such terms which they call a bad deal. They claim that no deal would be better than a bad deal.

Let’s be clear what ‘no deal’ would mean for Britain: WTO tariffs imposed on around 90 per cent of the goods the UK exports to the EU, including 36 per cent on dairy, 15 per cent on food, 11 per cent on textiles, and ten per cent on cars. It will also mean

import costs that will put up supermarket prices; service trade severely restricted because of regulatory differences; customs checks and inspections which would be lengthy and costly.

The most vulnerable in our country, the most indebted, the ones with the least to fall back on, would suffer most from the consequences.

In the new parliamentary arithmetic, these terms would not get approval from the majority of MPs. So where should Mrs May go from here? To withstand the internal party pressures on her, the Prime Minister clearly needs broad political support.

For a start, she needs weight placed on the other side of the scales by sensible

members of the Cabinet such as Chancellor Philip Hammond, Home Secretary Amber Rudd and Business Secretary Greg Clark. Their silence to date has been quite unforgivable.

She has to be honest about both the compromise needed to achieve a deal and the consequences of not getting it. Such honesty would be a sign of strength, not weakness.

As one of Europe’s largest economies, Britain can both leave the EU and retain its trading rights in the single market – as Norway did when its public voted against joining the EU – albeit with less say in deciding the rules that govern that trade. We have a much bigger economy than Norway, we are more important to the rest of Europe, and we have the influential status of a powerful recent member of the EU.

If, with one foot still in the European camp, we were to ask for flexible terms – for example in how freedom of movement operates – we would be listened to and, in my view, accommodated.

The Prime Minister will not be given this chance if she simply continues as she has started, by laying down the law and spelling out where she won’t budge.

I believe if she shows flexibility, most of the country will back her.

It would be churlish for people like me and other Remainers not to give her political backing. There are Labour MPs who want to work in the national interest and will support her if she does the right thing for the country.

Mainstream Labour MPs, who worry about the impact of the continuing Corbyn revolution on centrist voters, should be prepared to stand by the wounded PM, and likewise she should welcome their approach in the national interest.

If she gives in to the Brexit headbangers, on the other hand, she will only have herself to blame when the awful reality of our position dawns and she is forced into retreat by Parliament.

Does she have the sense and courage to hatch a new Brexit plan? The next few weeks will tell.