Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video The risk was unchanged, that is, from the deal comprehensively rejected in January for that very reason. In Parliament afterwards Cox put on a bravura performance to try to finesse the fact he had just thrown petrol on the already raging Brexit trash fire. “We must be bold and we must be courageous and we must move forward for the sake of our country,” he told glum, jeering MPs. Some Brexiters, and the Northern Irish DUP, had been counting on Cox for more than a recital of Henry V’s "once more into the breach". They had wanted a plausible ladder to climb down, so they could back the Brexit deal they furiously rejected in January.

There was some appetite for such a climb-down, as the prospect of a delayed, even cancelled Brexit became the likely alternative. Cox did recommend the deal on political grounds, and claimed legal bonds on the EU set in the Withdrawal Agreement had been tightened to ensure Europe negotiated the rest of Brexit in good faith on a brisk timetable. Theresa May outside Parliament. Credit:AP But he felt duty bound to confirm that there was still a real legal risk that, if trade negotiations with the EU were conducted in good faith but still broke down, the UK could not decide to simply bin the deal and move on.

Instead Brexit would rest in legal limbo, trapped indefinitely by the Withdrawal Agreement’s Irish "backstop" in a customs union designed and run from Brussels. That risk, cited by the Northern Irish DUP and Conservative Brexiters when they opposed the deal en masse in January, “remains unchanged”, Cox said. The size of the risk is disputed. The EU doesn’t want the backstop to be permanent any more than the UK does, which is to say not at all. If it can’t be replaced that would be because of a bigger disagreement. Theresa May addresses Parliament. Credit:AP Brexiter objections are a coded admission of this bigger problem. For the Irish border to be solved, Brexiters must finally face the contradiction at the heart of their project. They promised new sovereign controls over their country’s borders with the EU, while insisting there would be no need for actual controls at their only land border with the EU. One or other has to give (unless a repeatedly-touted but so far hypothetical "technological solution" can be found).

Loading They are unable make this choice. And so Brexiters joined with Labour to deliver the coup de grace to May’s Brexit plan. It was an uneasy alliance. The people who voted against this deal are far from united on an alternative. Indeed, they are at the far ends of the Brexit spectrum: hardcore "no dealers" alongside fervent second referendum buffs. So who will get what they want? Maybe nobody. Already, there is speculation of a third "meaningful vote" on May’s current deal (the EU insists it will not negotiate any further). May has promised a vote on Wednesday on a "no-deal" Brexit, followed by a vote on a Brexit delay to allow further negotiations. The EU may insist that delay is accompanied by another Brexit referendum.

Just to add to the mess, May’s authority in Parliament and in her own party is shredded. Her croaky, hoarse, disappearing voice in the Commons on Tuesday was the perfect metaphor. And Parliament’s, and the government’s credibility with the electorate is shot. Conservative MP Charles Walker, vice chairman of the influential "1922" committee of Conservative MPs, said “as sure as night follows day” there will be a general election. “It is not sustainable, the current situation in Parliament,” he said in a furious radio rant. “We have ministers who operate with impunity, we have backbenchers at each other’s throats … the country deserves more than this.” The British political system was not built for minority government, he said.