PRIME MINISTER non-elect Theresa May has insisted it is right for the leaders of the other 27 European Union countries to meet in Brussels without British involvement to formulate their plans for the pending Brexit negotiations.

Not that she had much choice in the matter.

And let’s face it we’d better get used to it because when Article 50 finally gets triggered there will be a lot more EU meetings without the input of perfidious Albion.

Arriving in Brussels May must have felt very much like the unwanted third cousin twice removed at the wedding feast, filling their pockets with vol-au-vents and fish paste sandwiches before they are ejected.

“I welcome the fact that the other leaders will be meeting to discuss Brexit tonight. As we are going to invoke Article 50, trigger the negotiations, by the end of March next year, it’s right that the other leaders prepare for those negotiations as we have been preparing,” May brayed.

So in total chaos then …

“We will be leaving the EU and we want that to be as smooth and orderly process as possible. It’s not just in our interests, it’s in the interest of the rest of Europe as well.”

Again… “smooth” and “orderly” wouldn’t be the words most people would choose to sum up the current situation.

The PM ducked repeated questions about private warnings from Britain’s EU ambassador Sir Ivan Rogers that a post-Brexit trade deal could take a decade to finalise and even then may fail to get ratified by member states.

Instead, what she said was: “What we will be discussing at this summit is how we work together to deal with the serious challenges that we face.

“So, we will be discussing migration. I have always said from the outset on migration that Europe needs to do more to tackle the root causes.”

Yes, I think we all know what May’s views on immigration are. Opinions so viciously extreme that they were formally adopted by French fascist leader Marine Le Pen last week.

It would appear that the Tories’ sole plan is to make this nation so toxic that the rest of the EU will happily give them anything just to get rid of them. If that is the case, they are making a good start.