IF only Theresa May had spoken to all sides in the House, and all corners of the UK, two or more years ago before she drew up her red lines and before she launched into her one-woman negotiations with the European Union.

Perhaps then a compromise Brexit could have been cooked up.

Now, with just days to go, Mrs May has come to the conclusion that her no-deal supporting right-wingers are too extreme and unbending and, at last, she has reached out to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Understandably given their loss of influence, members of the European Research Group are furious, although ironically Mr Corbyn is the first genuine Leaver to be involved in top level Brexit discussions. His left-wing strand of thinking has long held that the EU is a capitalist conspiracy and he only changed his mind when he surprisingly found himself leading remain-inclined Labour MPs.

He will be wary, though, about getting too close to Mrs May: the last time of national crisis that the Tories took a junior partner under their wing ended with the LibDems being humiliated. Labour will want to remain a cleanskin in the current meltdown: it was the Tories who broke our relationship with the EU; it is up to them to fix it.

So let’s hope Mrs May surprise us. Let’s hope she is flexible; let’s hope she can make a seismic U-turn. Something has to change. Red lines have to be ignored, otherwise we are stuck in this pathetic limbo until the clock runs out with who knows what consequences.