Brexit Bulletin: Theresa May's triumphant return

Good afternoon.

Last week, Theresa May was left reeling after the DUP derailed her hopes of a Brexit deal. Rumours were rife that Conservative MPs could move against her by Christmas. Her fortunes improved markedly over the last few days after she managed to repair relations and then agree the terms of Britain’s divorce on Friday, which she presented to MPs this afternoon.

Tory Brexiteers and Brexitsceptics lined up to say nice things. Ken Clarke lauded her “triumph” and Anna Soubry claimed there was “complete unanimity” among the blue benches in support of her. Leaver Edward Leigh praised her “calm and true grit”, Robert Halfon thought she showed "Zebedee-like resilience on the Magic Roundabout", while Nick Boles thought her Commons performance - in which she boasted of a “ new sense of optimism” in talks - was “worthy” of her childhood hero Geoffrey Boycott. The sourest Tory backbencher was Philip Davies, who summed up the give-and-take in the talks as follows: “We’re giving the EU tens of billions of pounds, and they’re taking them!”

Meanwhile, the Government has been quietly working to smooth the path of its Brexit legislation onto the statute book. Ahead of the EU Withdrawal Bill’s return to the Commons over the next two days, it has decided to avoid potential humiliation by agreeing to a compromise amendment on its use of Henry VIII powers. The compromise would see a cross-party “sifting committee” of MPs brought together to weed out the excessive use of these powers, which allow ministers to make swift changes to legislation. The make-up of this committee will be of keen interest to MPs, given the fights that took place to be on previous Brexit-related committees in Parliament.

Mrs May is basking in her backbenchers’ praise, but I point out online that Europe’s leaders still need to formally approve the divorce terms she negotiated last week. If they fear that she might upset negotiations by taking her prior offers off the table, they may try to nail down her promises more firmly. She may be hailed as “Brexit boudica” at the moment, as my colleague Christopher Hope puts it, but will that reputation endure once the detail is agreed over the next stages of the Brexit process?

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