Express & Star comment: Theresa May must listen to the public

But at the results of the Express & Star’s Brexit poll show, she is effectively flogging a dead horse.

The view across the Black Country and Staffordshire could not be more clear: the vast majority of people do not want this deal, under any circumstances.

• Your damning Brexit verdict: E&S readers reject Theresa May's deal

Mrs May has secured a rather dubious achievement, in that the agreement that she has reached with the EU pleases very few people in Great Britain.

Remainers see it as a bad deal, primarily because it sets the alarm bells ringing for the economy.

For Leavers, the deal involves us bring tied so closely to Brussels that it makes the victory fought for in the referendum seem rather pointless.

The DUP, which has propped up Mrs May’s administration since last year’s disastrous snap election, doesn’t like it because of the Irish backstop.

While the SNP is so opposed to Brexit that it would probably vote against any deal at all.

Indeed, it seems the only people who are in favour of Mrs May’s plan are over in Brussels, where Messrs Barnier and Juncker must be rubbing their hands at the prospect of yet more handouts from good old Blighty.

Readers of this newspaper voted in huge numbers to leave the EU, and despite the whining protestations of those calling for a ‘people’s vote’, the desire for Brexit is as strong as ever.

The Prime Minister has less than a week before her deal goes before MPs in Parliament.

At the present moment in time it looks destined to fail, with MPs opposing the deal outnumbering those who back it by two-to-one.

The clock is ticking for Mrs May, but she still has time to listen to the public.

This means going back to the drawing board and producing a Brexit that works for Britain, rather than one that cowers in the face of the EU.

If she doesn’t, the next few months could well prove to be a disaster for her personally, a disaster for the Conservative Party, and worst of all, a disaster for the country.