BORIS AND RUDD COULD STEER US AWAY FROM THE ROCKS

THERESA May unquestionably has many virtues. The Prime Minister is dutiful, patient and a good Christian. However, she has not succeeded in the face of her greatest challenge: achieving a proper Brexit deal which honours the 2016 referendum result.

That is why – regardless of whether she goes down to a crushing Commons defeat this week or tries to pull the vote – she should stand down.

Indeed, the humiliation of avoiding a Commons vote is as much a reason for her departure as defeat in an actual vote.

It is her policy which has failed and for which she is accountable. And it would be much better if she left of her accord rather than face a no-confidence motion.

The Conservative Party – and the nation – needs a new leader.

On its own, though, the departure of Theresa May is not enough.

Time is now short and it may well be worth paying for a standstill agreement to allow time to prepare for leaving on World Trade Organisation terms or to negotiate a free trade deal.

Then a plan to benefit from Brexit is needed, as is the leadership ticket to progress and unite the country and the party.

If, for example, leading figures from either side were prepared to come together, such as Boris Johnson and Amber Rudd, they could potentially deliver the Brexit people voted for with a global, outward looking UK that could succeed.

This may make it possible to steer the country away from the rocks towards which we are currently headed and instead lead us into the high seas of prosperity.

As for this doomed withdrawal deal, I regret to say it has turned the promises of the Government into fiction.

Even the Prime Minister herself has promised one thing and then done another.

The Conservative manifesto said that the UK would leave the Customs Union but the backstop potentially leaves us there until kingdom come.

Mrs May said that no one in her high position could envisage separation between constituent parts of the United Kingdom.

However, a whole protocol from the deal would separate Northern Ireland from Great Britain.

The European Court of Justice’s role was to be limited to citizens’ rights as we take back control of our laws.

Article 174 of the agreement states otherwise, though.

Similarly nothing was to be agreed until everything was agreed – but now the UK is to spend £39 billion with no guaranteed return.

Brexit was supposed to mean Brexit, not a passport to Britain becoming a vassal state.

This is a great risk for the Conservative Party, which now receives 70 per cent of its support from Leave voters.

In desperation, friends of No 10 claim that opposing the deal may open the door a Jeremy Corbynled government. In fact, the reverse is true. It is refusing to deliver Brexit that would lay a carpet of the deepest red upon which Mr Corbyn could walk into Downing Street.