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The DUP leader delivered a stern no to a deal that would leave Northern Ireland in “regulatory alignment” with the EU and out of step with the rest of the UK after Brexit.

Relying on 10 DUP votes to stay in 10 Downing Street for Christmas, Theresa May had little option but to accept a humiliating retreat from Brussels.

Yesterday, it was Ruth Davidson’s turn to have a go at being Prime Minister.

(Image: PA)

In a bout of freelance brokerage, the ­Scottish Tory leader made an early-morning call to Foster (more than the real PM did) and backed the DUP’s veto of any deal that left any part of the UK out of sync with another.

She then called the PM, made her views clear, and publicised them to the world.

Just in case the message didn’t get through, David Mundell, the Scottish Secretary, repeated it at yesterday’s Cabinet meeting.

By lunchtime, Brexit Secretary David Davis was singing off the Davidson song sheet, insisting the regulatory alignment was, of course, meant to apply across the whole UK.

(Image: AFP)

A good day in the office for Davidson whose aims were threefold. As well as pushing her preferred version of Brexit, Davidson recognised the danger of creating Brexit exceptions for Northern Ireland.

Any deal like that would fuel justifiable SNP demands for similar treatment, backed with a threat of a second independence referendum.

She also pushed hard against her nemeses – Boris Johnson and the Cabinet Brexiters – who got us in this mess in the first place.

Their choice now is regulatory alignment with the EU or the break-up of Britain.

But where were the Labour Party ? Missing from the Brexit battlefield... again.

Labour have had so many positions on Brexit that Kenny Dalglish’s legendary “mibbes aye, mibbes naw” remark might as well be the party’s official policy.

Keir Starmer who – like Davidson – would stay in the single market and the customs union tomorrow, is shackled by Jeremy Corbyn, who maintains a zen-like silence.

(Image: PA)

An opposition have to keep their options open and, when the Government are in chaos, it is sometimes better to stand back.

But opposition requires leadership too, and strategy, and the offer of an alternative ­direction to a hard Brexit. Labour have ­singularly refused to make that offer.

There is no mileage in Labour arguing that the Cabinet do not have a unified vision of Brexit when the Tory leader in Scotland has managed to define publicly her version.

There’s no reason why Labour’s new leader in Scotland couldn’t peform the same role as an outrider for Labour Remain.

When Richard Leonard was elected, there was a gap in the market for him to seize the Remain agenda in Scotland.

Scottish Labour’s response to the impasse was so convoluted and vague that they would impress no one except Jeremy Corbyn.

That was an early missed opportunity for Leonard, allowing first Sturgeon and then Davidson to take up the Brexit Remain baton that could have been in his hands.

It is long past time for Labour to show clarity on Brexit, to show bravery and, heaven forbid, to show some leadership.