IT’S full steam ahead for Brexit. That was the clarion call sent out by Prime Minister Theresa May to the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham last week.

But it will not be all plain sailing. There will be squalls along the way and the water will get distinctly rougher before the voyage is completed.

The hard core of “Remainers”, who ludicrously wanted to see a rerun of the referendum, seem to have quietly disappeared from the scene, but other anti-Brexiteers may well do their utmost to impede the progress. What is more, there are cracks appearing in the Cabinet itself.

Philip Hammond, Chancellor of the Exchequer, who is prominent in the “soft Brexit” lobby, is reportedly appalled by the “bull in a china shop” approach of the three Brexit Ministers, David Davis, Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, and Liam Fox, the International Trade Secretary.

May will need all the authority at her command - which is plentiful - to steer her policy through what are bound to be acrimonious Cabinet meetings lying ahead.

Hammond is fearful that a too-aggressive approach by this trio of ministers towards foreign leaders as well as Brussels grandees may be hugely damaging to the negotiations. Hammond advocates a softly-softly approach if Britain is to get what it wants, rather than table thumping.

This is the biggest constitutional upheaval Britain has faced for generations. If it goes wrong, May might well be bidding goodbye to Number 10.


AT long last, it seems, someone is getting to grips with Britain’s exorbitant and largely unmonitored overseas aid programme.

Priti Patel, the lively new International Development Secretary, has made clear that she is not prepared to spend money in this way simply to meet David Cameron’s promise of 0.7% of national income.

At present, the bill stands at a massive £12 billion a year of taxpayers’ money, with no certainty that some large sums are reaching the right people or are being spent in the right way.

For instance, it has now been shown that large amounts have been reaching Palestine terrorists, and the building of a £250-million airport on the island of St Helena, which is too dangerous for aircraft to use.

What has been happening is that late in the fiscal year, some money has been handed out by this department to achieve the 0.7per cent target set by Cameron. That is now likely to end with a source close to Patel saying they will not be spending money simply for the sake of it.

It was more than ludicrous, almost criminal, to throw away money in this unchecked way. The cash should, for a start, be used to feed the starving in large areas of Africa, for instance.

Every penny should be monitored from Whitehall to the mouths of the hungry and deprived.