A deal at last! Now give it a fair chance

YESTERDAY we reached a point in the Brexit talks that many had begun to believe would never come. Against seemingly insuperable odds, Theresa May agreed a draft deal with Brussels which, if accepted, should both honour the referendum result and ensure that our departure will be orderly and amicable.

So how deeply unedifying that even before anyone outside the Cabinet had seen the 500-page document – let alone read it – hardline backbench Brexiteers raised a coordinated roar of hysteria against it.

True, nobody pretends the fine print will be exactly as everyone would have wished. This was always going to be a pipe-dream in a country split down the middle over the issue (and that’s not to mention the EU’s determination to drive as hard a bargain as possible).

But level-headed Leave voters should surely draw comfort from Mrs May’s passionate assurances, repeated as recently as Monday night: ‘This will not be an agreement at any cost.

‘Any deal must ensure we take back control of our laws, borders and money. It must secure the ability to strike new trade deals around the world. And it must also be a deal that protects jobs, our security and our precious Union.’ Meanwhile, those who backed Remain should surely be cheered that if the deal goes through, we will maintain close links with our nearest neighbours, with none of the unforeseeable consequences of a ‘cliffedge’ Brexit that so many dread.

Indeed, millions on both sides of the argument will have rejoiced over this substantial progress, won by the PM’s dogged refusal to be deflected from the nation’s interests by the brickbats hurled at her from all sides, at home and abroad.

At the very least, her critics in Parliament owe it to her to take a long, hard, considered look at these proposals before shooting their mouths off, demanding resignations and threatening to topple her.

Just one question: how would it help their cause if they succeeded in ousting her? Her successor would be left in charge of the same divided country, confronting the same obdurate Brussels and the same parliamentary arithmetic.

Or do they want an election – raising the nightmare possibility of a Marxist government under Jeremy Corbyn, changing its mind about Brexit from one day to the next? Brexiteers go on endlessly about respecting the ‘people’s will’. The people’s will today is to push Brexit through and strike the best deal we can to end the uncertainty. For Britain’s sake, give Mrs May’s hard-won proposals a chance.