As shattered MPs restored themselves in Parliament’s member’s tea room during another week of late nights at Westminster, it all got too much for one Eurosceptic Conservative.

To the protestations of colleagues, the Brexit-backing former minister, who until recently served in Theresa May’s government, said they were so disillusioned with the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union that they had come to the conclusion the best outcome for the country would be to revoke Article 50. They spent a good 10 minutes making the case for calling the whole thing off.

“I’m sure they didn’t really mean it,” a Tory MP said afterwards. “But people did listen to Nick Ferrari and empathise.” Brexiteer radio presenter Ferrari said on Wednesday that he had given up on leaving the EU, telling LBC’s listeners: “Just bloody stay and we'll move on to other things.''

Talk of cancelling Brexit from the most ardent of Brexiteers shows how much the mood has changed over the last three weeks, since the government’s withdrawal agreement was rejected by the House of Commons for a third time; the PM’s team began negotiations with Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party over a new soft Brexit deal; and May signed off another Article 50 extension with the EU.

Most Brexiteer MPs, even many of the self-described “Spartans” who have continued to hold out against May’s deal, accept that their preferred no-deal outcome is less likely than ever, and that developments they previously considered impossible are now in play.

“Two weeks ago revocation was completely out of the question and a second referendum was a fantasy. It is now clear that MPs would vote to revoke rather than allow no deal, and that the government is seriously considering a vote on a second referendum,” the Tory MP told BuzzFeed News.

The compromise Article 50 extension to October 31 agreed by May and EU leaders this week darkened the mood on the Tory backbenches.

Prior to the European Council summit, Brexiteers were surprisingly upbeat about the prospect of a long extension to either December, or March next year.

A plan had been drawn up by senior Eurosceptics – with the knowledge and tacit support of cabinet ministers – to immediately declare May’s position untenable if she agreed a nine or 12-month Brexit delay.

It would have represented the ultimate failure of her Brexit strategy, forced her resignation, brought about a Tory leadership contest and the likely election of a new Brexiteer PM, and allowed time for a general election fought on a manifesto of getting a better deal with Brussels while properly preparing for no-deal. Or so the theory went.

The October extension put paid to that. “It is the worst of both worlds,” another Tory MP told BuzzFeed News. “Macron’s short extension would have created a cliff-edge where we could have realistically left with no deal. A long extension would have meant a change of leader and a change of strategy. Instead we are stuck in the middle with her.”