High stakes - Can UK PM Theresa May outline a clear Brexit strategy to Brussels and turn things around?

THERESA May will give on Friday only her third set-piece speech on Brexit since becoming UK prime minister. In what may be her "last best chance" to set out a comprehensive UK exit vision and kickstart the second phase of talks, she badly needs to articulate a clear, coherent and comprehensive Brexit strategy.

The reason this is important is that, to date, Mrs May's attempts at taking big steps forward with EU partners continue to be hamstrung by lack of any UK government strategy. If strategy is a balanced combination of ends, ways and means, then the United Kingdom under her leadership has from the start been unclear about what end it wants from Brexit.

Ministers have been unsure about whether they have or can put in place the ways and means to get there. And, to compound the problem, they have struggled to understand how the EU is thinking and behaving.