France and Spain want to renegotiate the Brexit deal — so why can't we, Mrs May?

Despite being the first word of the document Theresa May brought back to her cabinet last week, it has been all too easy to forget about the word "draft".  The deal will only be settled once she signs it this weekend, with it becoming reality after Europe's parliaments have given their approval.

That process has been summed by the negotiating refrain - "nothing has been agreed until everything has been agreed". The Prime Minister is acutely aware of that, given that she has alluded to it herself many times. But she has been acting as if it has already been agreed in its entirety.

Everything Mrs May has done since securing her draft deal indicates she does not believe it is worth trying to extract any serious concessions before it is signed. The only reason Michael Gove is not the Brexit Secretary now is because he insisted on being allowed to try and renegotiate it. The man who got the job has been stripped off any relevance to the negotiations, instead having to focus on with steering the deal through Parliament and no-deal contingency plans.

The Prime Minister has been firm about the apparent rigidity of the draft Withdrawal Agreement, which covers the terms of the United Kingdom's divorce from the European Union, That, she told Sky News over the weekend, has been "agreed...in principle". She went further yesterday to the Confederation of British Industry, declaring that it was "in place...[and]... agreed in full". Her team are hoping that Brexiteers will be mollified by lesser-noticed parts of the draft text.

At least she acknowledges that the outline agreement on the future relationship both sides can pursue is still worth finessing.

Mrs May's treatment of the draft Withdrawal Agreement text as if it has been chiselled onto tablets brought down from Mount Sinai looks absurd given how ready her European counterparts are to demand rewrites. Spain's prime minister is now threatening to block the deal unless he gets a veto on the UK-EU future trade deal applying to Gibraltar.

It is tempting to dismiss Mr Sanchez' threat as politicking given that he is soon to face regional elections and so might well be keen to drum up domestic support by whipping up a row. But other European member states are making their own demands, and their leaders face much less imminent elections. 

France, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands want more concrete guarantees over continued access to British waters as the price for the future free trade agreement, while many nations are complaining that Michel Barnier has not been strong enough in the "level playing field" guarantees he secured. So they will be keen for the screws to be tightened over the coming days. 

It is only natural for those involved in a negotiation to want to keep pushing for more concessions until the very last minute before the deal is signed. That is even preached by Donald Trump, who once boasted that he aims high and then just keeps "pushing and pushing to get what I'm after".

With Spain and the rest of the EU27 still demanding more from the deal, Mrs May should stop fighting the UK's corner. Making out that the deal is set in stone while the EU tries to rewrite it in their favour would be a dereliction of duty. The Prime Minister might want to pocket her draft deal and get on with selling it, but if she doesn't keep making her case at the negotiating table until it is signed, she can only end up with a worse version to sell.