Theresa May’s Brexit speech – ten main points

‘A Global Britain’ promised the slogan behind Theresa May as she delivered her big Brexit speech. It was robust and well-judged, very much in the tone of The Spectator‘s leading article endorsing Brexit – she even used the same ‘Out, and into the world’ language we put on our cover.

The referendum, she said, was ‘a vote to restore, as we see it, our parliamentary democracy, national self-determination and to and become even more global and internationalist in action and in spirit.’ She spoke so persuasively about the case for Brexit that you almost forgot that she campaigned (or, at least, voted) against it. But after a decent period of reflection, her conversion to Brexistism is now complete.  She lambasted the EU for failing to handle the ‘diversity’ of the continent and hailed David Cameron’s negotiation as a ‘valiant final attempt to make it work for Britain.’ But the ‘blunt truth, as we know, is that there there was not enough flexibility’ to satisfy the public.