The Trump concept – Brexit with no deal, followed by FT deal with US.

President Trump, never one to mince his words, has shocked Britain’s political pundits by being totally open, vocal and – heaven forbid – correct about the downsides of May’s Chequers plan. Echoing admissions made in the government’s own white paper. which confessed that “in the context of trade negotiations, a common rulebook for goods would limit the UK’s ability to make changes to regulation” – the United States President was clear that the prime minister’s fake Brexit “would probably end a major trade relationship with the EU”.

That’s right: May’s ridiculous plan, which would see Britain under the continued jurisdiction of the ECJ while promising “labour mobility” to 500m EU citizens, will stop a major trade deal with the single largest economy on the planet. For a breakdown of the disastrous Chequers proposal, visit the Leave.EU blog.

“It was not the deal that was in the referendum”, Mr Trump said. If only we had a proper leader like the Donald instead of cowering Theresa May.

May’s complete lack of negotiating nous was made all the more apparent as stories spread about the nature of David Davis’ departure from government. Expressing his concerns about the Chequers deal, he was allegedly told that May was unable to change course at this point because she’d already received the approval of Angela Merkel – who any serious leader would see as a foe, not a line manager. Imagine British statesmen in the midst of the Second World War explaining that they were unable to change defence strategy because they’d already gotten the okay from Adolf Hitler…

They were joined by Brexit minister Steve Baker and Tory vice chairs Ben Bradley (who backed Remain in June 2016) and Maria Caulfield. They all echoed the same concerns outlined by Davis, Boris, and the United States President, but May refuses to budget from the position forced on her by unelected civil servant Olly Robbins.

The week also saw the publication by ConservativeHome of David Davis’ original Brexit white paper, which would have opted for mutual recognition of standards rather than May’s “common rulebook” (in fact, an EU rulebook that the UK submits to slavishly). Stewart Jackson, who incoming Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab tried to rehire at DExU only to be overruled, praised the plan as being consistent with the principles of May’s 2017 Mansion House speech and asked “who blocked it and why?”

With arch-Remainers Olly Robbins and Gavin Barwell sitting comfortably in Downing Street, there isn’t much of a mystery…