This dazzling success must not blind May

THE Prime Minister has done far better in Washington than she could have hoped. There was a great risk that she might have been dangerously upstaged, rudely brushed aside or simply embarrassed by President Trump.

As it was, her very presence at the White House seems to have had a powerful beneficial effect on the American leader.

In public he acted like a mature statesman, humorously missing the chance to bite the head off a BBC reporter who sought and failed to provoke him into one of his snarling, merciless retorts.

In private talks he graciously gave way on Nato and torture, abandoning his raucous dissent from the establishment view.

Not merely did Theresa May get everything she wanted, plus several superb status-enhancing photo opportunities. She made it look easy and must have caused other world statesmen to wish they had got there first. As she returns from meeting that even more worrying figure, Turkey’s President Erdogan, she must feel something of a glow. But she should be careful not to be complacent.

Foreign successes such as this do not protect Premiers against the dangers they face at home. David Cameron’s equally successful encounter with Barack Obama was swiftly followed by the ‘Omnishambles’ Budget. Tony Blair spent so much time wooing Bill Clinton and George W. Bush that he lost the respect of voters.

Mrs May still faces many unsolved difficulties back in London, and is not short of enemies in her own party ready to take advantage of any stumbles she makes.

For British politicians, the temptation to shine on the world stage is always strong. Its glamour and flattery are tempting. And it is important. But those who become too preoccupied with statesmanship sometimes forget that they still need to be politicians. The Prime Minister should get straight back to her domestic cares, before the shine has come off her American journey.