If we strike a decent Brexit deal, it will be DESPITE Theresa May’s botched negotiations

“HISTORY will judge us all for the part we have played in this process,” Mrs May warned squabbling MPs yesterday.

It will indeed. And history’s judgment on this Prime ­Minister’s botched Brexit ­negotiations is likely to be harsh.

It will show the unnecessary crisis engulfing Britain as we stumble unprepared towards a No Deal Brexit was entirely made in Downing Street.

It was created by a stubborn, inflexible Remainer who ignored the clearly stated instructions of the British people — especially those in her own party — to leave the European Union.

Mrs May could not understand why 17.4million voted Out and has done everything possible to keep the UK tied hand and foot to Brussels.

This failure of imagination is characteristic of a leader who defied advice, triggered Brexit without a plan and lost her majority in a catastrophic snap election along the way.

Now she wants to revive her universally detested Chequers deal — famously branded “a polished turd” by Boris Johnson — and ram it down the throats of Brexiteers.

They must swallow the unacceptable or take the blame for a No Deal Brexit. To drive her point home, she and Chancellor Phil Hammond unleashed another burst of Project Fear, with Armageddon warnings of industrial chaos and a flight of talent and capital abroad.

Airbus will flap its wings and fly away to mainland Europe.

Yet as that famous clock ticks towards March 29, the tactic has backfired. Nobody believes their cries of “wolf” any more.

NO DISRUPTION

More to the point, No Deal is finally proving to be Britain’s trump card.

Just as Remainers are trying desperately to take it off the table, the EU — not Downing Street — is waking up to reality.

Announcements slipped out on Friday night reveal there will be NO disruption to flights and other transport across the Channel after all. Trucks, buses and coaches will drive on as before. There will be no log jams at Calais, no car parks on the M20, no shortages of medicine or Mars bars.

Former Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab says: “This pierces the Project Fear myths and shows the UK and EU can work sensibly together.”

In which case, there is no reason why we cannot swiftly sign a free-trade deal that benefits both sides, continues military and intelligence co-operation and wins the friendly divorce Britain always wanted.

All we need is a leader with vision and enthusiasm. We might even get back on an even keel with hostile Irish leaders who have been rather too keen to give us a kicking.

Even gloomy Bank of England governor Mark Carney admits Brexit might actually be good for global trade.

Yes, there will be some turbulence. But evidence suggests it might be the EU in trouble, not the UK. Brussels is increasingly beginning to panic.

With economic and political crises crowding in on all sides, the last thing they need is a disorderly Brexit.

Germany, on the brink of recession, risks the loss of 100,000 jobs. Unemployment is causing friction, with France fiercely at odds with Italy over migration. Spain is fighting off separatists. Paris is on fire.

Billionaire George Soros, a man with a track record for spotting trouble, warns the EU is “sleepwalking into oblivion” and risks collapsing like the Soviet Union.

ON BRINK OF A DEAL

Which might explain pocket-Napoleon Emmanuel Macron’s sudden offer to solve the backstop question.

We can attach a “standard exit clause” to Mrs May’s deal, he says, making it acceptable to both Brexiteers and to Parliament. That might work.

Despite the best efforts of the Prime Minister and diehard Remainers, we may actually be on the brink of a deal.

Which almost makes you wonder if the backstop was inserted deliberately so that it could be spectacularly removed at the last minute to cheers of joy and relief.

With any other PM, that might be a plausible theory.

But history is likely to find that if we get a decent deal, it will be DESPITE Theresa May — not thanks to her clever negotiating tactics.

CorBNB

AUTHOR Tom Bower has exposed Jeremy Corbyn as an anti-Semitic Marxist who hates everything this country stands for and admires our most brutal enemies.

Now we learn hypocrisy runs in the family. Despite working for his leftie dad’s sidekick John McDonnell, Sebastian Corbyn is making £150 a night from the “beautiful, newly renovated” former council flat he bought on the cheap.

He is using Airbnb – denounced by Jezza for robbing workers of affordable accommodation – to lure clients.

Or he was . . . until this rampant capitalist was outed by that wonderful institution, a free Press.