A leadership challenge could be the price the Prime Minister pays for a deeply dubious Brussels agreement

Although on Friday the great triumph Theresa May allegedly had in Brussels was being hailed in some quarters as evidence of her superb leadership, it wasn’t hard to find Tories who begged to differ. Quite a few felt she had just rolled over, and they blamed a style of leadership utterly lacking in collegiality, distrustful of consultation and reliant on bad advice.

That style now means all the conditions are in place for the current acclamation of a deal that her critics damn as both vague and a betrayal of the democratic majority to turn in time to cynicism and disapproval. From there, it is a short step to a renewed assault on her incumbency of Downing Street.

It is not only that Mrs May failed properly to consult her colleagues – including, one hears, her own Brexit Secretary, David Davis, as well as the Democratic Unionist Party on which her entire government hangs (partners of some importance, you might think). It is that she continues to fail to give any solid indication, even in private, of where the Brexit process will end up.