“The most important thing to say tonight is that this is not an end but a beginning. This is the moment when the curtain goes up on a new act in our national drama.”
Well, it only took the best part of four years, two elections, two Prime Ministerial changes – and over 40 resignations.
The Conservatives pulverise Labour in a near-landslide, and the door to Brexit is flung wide open.
Opposition MPs boo, chant, jostle, hold up placards. A general election follows soon afterwards – after the SNP and the LibDems push for one.
“The doubters, the doomsters, the gloomsters – they are going to get it wrong again. The people who bet against Britain are going to lose their shirts.”
At last she bowed to the inevitable – thereby opening up a leadership contest that saw Jeremy Hunt and Boris Johnson make the final two.
The Attorney-General tried to persuade the Commons that May’s deal has been substantially changed. But it failed for a third time.
Meanwhile, the mass of Ministerial resignations and backbench defections continued to rage.
She tries to bounce the Commons into approving an amended draft. The plan went down to another big defeat.
It was the beginning of the end for the then Prime Minister. She survived the challenge – but her position continued to worsen.
It goes down in the Commons by 230 votes – the largest defeat for a sitting government in history.
“I wish you all the best for the future. I want to return to the kind of vision that Churchill set out.”
“Today’s vote is not a vote in favour or against Brexit. It is a vote for an orderly Brexit against a wild Brexit.”
“Once we’ve left, we are never coming back – and rest, frankly, is detail. We’re going: we will be gone.”
A period of Parliamentary carnage begins that rages on until the general election of last month.