Theresa May is still the Prime Minister today but she is no longer first among equals. Power has passed to her Cabinet, many of whose members she wanted to sack or never bring back. For constitutional romantics this will be a welcome return of collegiate government but communes can’t run countries and Cabinets need to be led. The tragedy is that Britain is saddled with weak leadership at the very moment it is about to embark on the most important negotiations in its recent history.

Look across the Channel at who is going to be on the other side of the negotiating table as we seek to leave the EU and you see Angela Merkel ever more confident while President Macron is on course to win a stunning majority in France’s Assemblée Nationale. One of the central premises of the Brexiteers was that the eurozone was fragmenting. Now it’s we who look weak and divided while the Europeans appear — how can one put it? — strong and stable.

After the excitement of the election, it’s time for the political equivalent of the cold shower. We need a realistic assessment of Britain’s approach to the Brexit talks. We should acknowledge that the two central cards in Mrs May’s negotiating hand have been taken away from her by the British people and the balance of power in the new House of Commons.

First, she said she wanted to prioritise ending both the free movement of people and the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice rather than the economy and our access to our largest export markets. That’s why she was insistent on taking Britain out of the single market and the customs union. That remains the line today from Brexit Secretary David Davis. But the fact is that there is now no parliamentary majority for leaving the customs union. The majority that may appear to exist today for leaving the single market will probably evaporate once the idea that we will have a comprehensive trade deal with the EU in just 20 months’ time is exposed as nonsense. Ruth Davidson, the charismatic Scottish Tory leader (without whose victories north of the border we might now be facing the prospect of Prime Minister Corbyn), has explicitly called for an “open Brexit” that instead prioritises the economy over immigration.

European Economic Area

The Chancellor who Mrs May wanted to sack agrees. In today’s Conservative Party, Philip Hammond and Ruth Davidson have more power than the Prime Minister. Indeed, growing numbers in the Cabinet now privately think Britain should seek to retain membership of the European Economic Area (EEA) and the customs union as an interim step while a permanent arrangement is sorted out. On this page, former Cabinet minister Andrew Adonis makes a strong argument for this approach from a Labour perspective. Expect to hear more about the EEA as the interim solution in the coming weeks and months.

The second card that Mrs May wanted to play was that “no deal is better than a bad deal”. Northern Ireland’s DUP, which now holds her hostage, has now removed that joker from her pack too. It could never allow the return of a hard border with the Irish Republic, given the economic damage that would do to its constituents. The Council of Ministers has made it clear that the arrangements with the Republic of Ireland cannot be concluded bilaterally between the two neighbours but must be part of an overall deal with the EU. So no deal is not an option now for the British Government, if it ever was.

Mrs May’s dreams for her premiership evaporated on election night; so too did her uncompromising approach to our exit from the EU. That is good news for those who were alarmed to see Britain’s economy being driven straight into a brick wall by the hard Brexiteers. We may now be in for a smoother ride.