There’s one man that is able to save us from May’s Brexit surrender

MINISTERS fear they are being set up by Theresa May for a “take it or leave it” deal which lands Britain in a BRINO trap – Brexit In Name Only.

The half-in, half-out scheme would lock Britain into a customs union which prevents outside trade deals and leaves our £39billion divorce bill as just a down payment.

Or so it seems from a series of whispered Downing Street leaks.

Theresa May is so secretive she could yet surprise us all with a terrific deal for Britain.

In the meantime, Brexiteers are bracing themselves for a humiliating UK surrender.

Ironically, fears of a botched treaty coincide with signs of growing dismay among EU member states over the shoddy treatment of a long-standing and respected ally.

EU negotiator Michel Barnier has been rebuked publicly by EC President Jean-Claude Juncker for the way he has handled talks.

Britain’s biggest non-EU allies — America, Japan and Commonwealth countries such as Australia — report “signs of panic” in the capitals of Europe.

These focus not just on trade with Britain but on potent issues such as joint defence, intelligence and security.

They come at a time of mounting EU anxiety over the disintegration of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s authority, challenges to the euro from Italy and the rise of right-wing nationalists.

Italy’s lethal threat to EU economic rules will come to a head just as we are due to leave next March.

French President Emmanuel Macron warns Europe faces the worst instability since World War One.

Yet far from capitalising on EU disarray, Mrs May appears ready to leave Britain stranded in what may turn out to be the ruins of the European Project.

Her sop to Brexiteers — applying customs checks at factories, not borders — has backfired.

“It means they were bluffing about a hard border with Northern Ireland all along,” says one.

By taking us into a customs union, even temporarily, Mrs May will turn her back on allies eager for trade deals — led by American President Donald Trump.

He planned to make it the highlight of next year’s state visit to the UK.

World leaders are shocked by Britain’s cringing, long-winded and cackhanded negotiating style.

“Just say you are leaving — and mean it,” says one. “That will get them to the table.”

Alarm over “crashing out” is dismissed as scare stories.

There is overwhelming confidence the world’s fifth largest economy will thrive outside the EU.

Ministers will be given a first glimpse of the plot stitched up between Barnier, the PM and Whitehall’s increasingly exhausted Olly Robbins.

Mrs May will present them with a stark choice between a done deal and a Marxist Corbyn government.

After two humiliating years of fumbled negotiation, this is a dismal prospect indeed.

But there is another choice — a new leader ready to put the national interest ahead of naked personal ambition.

It won’t be careerist Andrea Leadsom, nor Aid Secretary Penny Mordaunt.

Sajid Javid is damaged goods.

Brexit supremo Dominic Raab wants Philip Hammond’s job as Chancellor.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt could seize the initiative, but he won’t act alone.

So the hopes of many Tories are pinned on Attorney General Geoffrey Cox QC, the breezy Brexiteer who torpedoed Mrs May’s first botched attempt to seal a deal.

It was Cox who compared her Chequers blueprint to purgatory — the “second circle of Hell”.

He is now marking her homework.

Ministers want him to have the final say on the PM’s secret new deal — and for his views to be published.

Cox is an eminent lawyer and constitutionalist.

He is also a politician who has only recently sniffed the sweet scent of political success.

He has subsequently been tipped as a dark horse leadership contender.

Having seen him in action at the Old Bailey, I think the national interest will come first.

The 17.4million who voted for British sovereignty will hope I’m right.