For the first time in a long time we have a Prime Minister with a clear sense of purpose.
The Prime Minister has set out clearly her guiding principles and for Brexit. She told us much we already knew, and confirmed other things that had been reasonable assumptions if you had been listening carefully to her since she moved into No 10. We will leave the Single Market. We will leave parts of the Customs Union but will seek a new Customs Agreement. We will incorporate existing EU law into UK domestic law. The jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice will end. Workers rights will be protected. Practical matters of law enforcement and intelligence sharing will continue. Foreign and defence policy will continue to be co-ordinated. The aim is to negotiate a full deal inside the two year time frame followed by a period of phasing in the changes – avoiding a disruptive ‘cliff edge’. Both Houses of Parliament will have the opportunity to vote of the deal before it is implemented – thereby rightly respecting the Sovereignty of Parliament.
Theresa May has been bold and imaginative in her negotiating ambitions. The Prime Minister is right to be firm in stating her determination not to provide a blow-by-blow commentary on every detail of the negotiation. On the substance of her approach to Brexit she has set out all that can reasonably be asked of her. In making her speech however she did something that is even more interesting than the immediately pressing issue of the negotiations with the EU.
Overarching her speech was a bold and ambitious vision for the country she leads and the values that will her in delivering it. She positioned Brexit in the broader context of the sort of country she wants to build and to lead. She outlined a vision of a Britain looking out across the world and globally focussed. A Britain not just open for business, but a broader opportunity for the country to return to a newly confident role in world affairs. At home she re-stated her vision for a more coherent society of shared values and better opportunity, a fairer more inclusive Britain.
Theresa May has never lacked a vision of where she wants to take the country or the values that guide her. Her caution and determination have sometimes, wrongly, been mistaken for stubbornness and indecision. Her speech rose to the occasion, outlining what she wants from her negotiations with the EU, putting Brexit in its wider context, setting out a vision for the country at home and abroad, and of the kind of Britain she wants to build. For the first time in a long time we have a Prime Minister with a clear sense of purpose and a compelling sense of values setting out a direction around which most should be able to rally.