They are at least on-brand in refusing to accept the result of the vote on the proposal which has already taken place – which they lost.
Hers or Letwins? That’s what the choice is narrowing down to. From the point of view of trust in politics, how MPs vote will now make little difference – if any.
The list includes the three who resigned from the Government this evening – and Green, one of the Prime Minister’s oldest allies.
The proposal was rejected by 314 votes to 311. Boles, Gyimah, Spelman and Vaizey were among those to rebel. Plus Brine and Harrington.
Even worse is the politicisation of the Speaker’s Chair. The impartiality of Britain’s Speaker was, like the impartiality of its monarch, a given.
There’s little that Conservative MPs can do to stop the Speaker – they don’t have the votes to depose him.
A dedicated band of Conservative pro-Brexit holdouts stands ready to perish rather than let May’s deal pass.
By longstanding convention the Speaker casts his vote for the status quo. But would he?
Halfon and Stevenson join the Europhile ultras in a very near miss for the Government.
Cooper/Letwin is back, supported by Labour and Tory Europhiles as well as the Liberal Democrats, the Independent Group, and Scottish and Welsh nationalists.
Two of them, Sarah Newton and Paul Masterton, were members of the Government, and have resigned.
Several Ministers helped to see off the Government’s best hope of avoiding a full-on crisis in the Party – and perhaps of saving Brexit too.
There aren’t any surprises here, although on a grim night the Government at least appear to have talked two of its original signatories out of backing it.
The EU won’t grant us a long extension for fear of what European elections here would produce. If we hold our nerve, the UK will Brexit on WTO terms in April.