The attempted Brexit coup took place with only minutes’ notice, having been arranged in the late afternoon in the offices of Iain Duncan Smith — an ex-Tory leader who fell victim to insurrection in his party.

At 5.30pm yesterday in Central Lobby, the fulcrum of parliament between the Commons and the Lords, Jacob Rees-Mogg, leader of the Tory hard Brexiteers, stood next to Nigel Dodds, Westminster leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), to demand that they wrest back control of Brexit from Theresa May.

The newly inked text of the Withdrawal Agreement was barely dry, having been sent by Olly Robbins, Mrs May’s Europe adviser, back to Downing Street at lunchtime. Although a few elements had started to leak through Whitehall backchannels, several