Emmanuel Macron could have chosen to humiliate Theresa May when the two leaders met in Paris. Wise beyond his years, the French president told the prime minister that the door was still open to rethink Britain’s relationship with the EU. Britain should take Mr Macron at his word. There is a path out of the Brexit mess. It requires the reassertion of the national interest over that of the Conservative party.

In the pantheon of prime ministerial failures, Mrs May runs a close race with her predecessor David Cameron. As things stand, Mr Cameron claims the prize. The purpose of his premiership never reached beyond a sense of entitlement. His Brexit referendum reflected at once weakness and insouciant self-regard. He would first bow to the Tory Eurosceptics and then beat them.

Mrs May’s botched general election was more a matter of simple opportunism. She looked at the opinion polls, saw a chance to cast herself as the Iron Lady of Brexit, and fluffed it. Mr Cameron’s dismal record is fixed forever in the history books. Mrs May still has a chance to write a redeeming codicil.