Theresa May must stop presenting Britain as the supplicant in Brexit talks

Theresa May is on her way back from China, but those hoping the Prime Minister has turned over a new leaf on her trip will be disappointed. Formal talks will soon begin on the implementation – or transition period, yet all the signs are that the Government is continuing to prevaricate on spelling out what it really wants from Brexit. Instead of setting out any kind of grand vision, the PM opts instead to take baby steps on the long road towards Britain’s departure from the EU.

During her interview on the Today programme just now, May kept up this approach and again refused to spell out much in the way of detail. The PM was challenged by the BBC’s Laura Kueenssberg to ‘come clean on what you really want’. Unsurprisingly, she dodged the opportunity to do just that:

‘We also want to ensure we can trade across borders. We are at the start of a negotiation.