Britain’s golden chance wasted

IT took EU leaders just THIRTY-EIGHT minutes to sign off the Brexit deal.

That tells you just how bad it is for Britain.

4 Theresa May is wrong to push this deal through under the guise that people are bored of Brexit Credit: AP:Associated Press

It is not a diplomatic compromise. It’s a surrender.

We cannot recommend this deal to our readers, nor to MPs.

Yesterday in Brussels, Donald Tusk and others lined up to express how sad they were about our departure.

But the solemn mask slipped within hours.

4 Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez is already threatening the UK over Gibraltar Credit: AFP or licensors

Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez is already using the deal to threaten us over Gibraltar.

The puffed-up and pompous Emmanuel Macron has made it clear that the appalling “backstop” will be used to nobble our fishing communities. Does that make us an “independent coastal state”, as the PM says? Hardly.

And there are reports that the EU will cut us out of defence and foreign policy decisions.

What more will we give up over the next few years, with EU leaders trapping us in the Customs Union unless we bend over backwards for them?

4 French President Emmanuel Macron will threaten the UK fishing communities with the 'backstop' agreement Credit: Alamy Live News

How can we possibly sign up to a deal that relies on them showing good faith?

The Prime Minister is right when she says that politicians have a responsibility to honour the referendum vote.

But she is patronising voters when she says that people are bored of Brexit.

They don’t want any old deal just to get it done. We are defining what this country looks like for decades to come. Let’s get it right.

4 Donald Tusk was one of the EU leaders who lined up to express their sadness for the UK leaving Europe Credit: Getty Images - Getty

If the PM is worried we’re fed up now, that’s nothing compared to the anger that will come Westminster’s way if — despite a historic vote for independence and sovereignty — we are left merely a puppet on Brussels’ strings.

We will be forever competing with one arm tied behind our back.

It’s true the PM has “won” the power to set our own immigration policy, and it should be one that welcomes the world’s best and brightest, rather than one based on quotas and limits.

That means an end to the ludicrous “hundreds of thousands” target that the PM — and only the PM — still thinks is a good idea.

But we would get those powers with a clean break, too, as well as an end to the vast sums we send to the EU each year — and we wouldn’t be coughing up a “divorce bill” for the privilege.

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The PM must call Brussels’ bluff. At the very least, the backstop must be revisited, or the next stage of negotiations will simply be an exercise in finding different ways to wave a white flag.

Brexit is NOT a damage limitation exercise, but a golden opportunity to build a bigger, global Britain.

With this deal, that chance is slipping through our fingers.

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May​ agrees Brexit deal with 27 ​EU ​leaders​ in just 33 minutes