Theresa May is said to have given little away at Chequers on Sunday

Theresa May should have been preparing for her big Brexit moment this weekend, putting the finishing touches to a celebration to mark Britain's departure from the EU on 29 March.

Instead she spent her time trying to fight off a coup and holding crisis meetings at her country retreat, Chequers, with both foes and allies.

The past 72 hours have been punishing for the prime minister: bounced into asking the EU for a Brexit extension by her cabinet and parliament, she then suffered the indignity of Brussels imposing their timetable on her.

Since that moment, her government and her position have been in free-fall.

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MPs are openly calling for her to quit; she has been forced to concede that she might not be able to bring her Brexit deal back for a vote less than 24 hours after telling the world she would; and to cap it all off, the weekend press was awash with reports of an impending coup.


These are very difficult days for a Conservative government that feels like it could implode. But, as one minister pointed out: "Brexit is a riddle and the answer isn't a new leader."

With that in mind, the prime minister and her core team convened an emergency meeting at Chequers with key Brexiteers to see if there was some way through the impasse.

Fourteen around the table, the Brexit delegation included three former Brexit cabinet ministers - Boris Johnson, David Davis and Dominic Raab.

There were also leading figures from the backbench ERG group - Jacob Rees-Mogg, Steve Baker and former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith.

Image: Boris Johnson arriving at Chequers on Sunday

My sources tell me that the message from the Brexiteers - delivered by Mr Rees-Mogg and Mr Duncan Smith - was simple: if the prime minister wants to get her Brexit deal across the line in the House of Commons then she must set out a clear timetable for her departure, to enable another leader to negotiate Britain's future relationship with the EU.

With Brexiteer support, a pathway opens up to getting her Mrs May's deal across the line.

But it comes with a major sacrifice - her resignation.

I understand that the prime minister gave very little away, and those familiar with the conversation say they simply do not know what she will do.

We will have to wait until Monday morning, when she convenes her cabinet, to find out what she has decided.

"She has to set the direction of travel," said one senior Brexiteer on Sunday night.

"That she must go is an integral message, (and) not just from the ERG - it has become mainstream across the back benches."

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The mood has certainly hardened against Mrs May over the past few days, but many of her ministers realise that she is in an impossible position, and her departure at this moment would not solve the Brexit conundrum.

There is no clear view on what the Conservative Party's Brexit policy would be were Mrs May's deal to be dropped.

Different factions of her party want no-deal, a Norway-style arrangement, or even a second referendum.

The power vacuum is creating policy pandemonium: in the space of two hours on Sunday morning, Chancellor Philip Hammond told my colleague Sophy Ridge that should MPs start holding votes on different options, no deal and the revocation of Article 50 should be ruled out, but a second referendum was a "coherent proposition and it deserves to be considered".

Over on the BBC's The Andrew Marr show, Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay suggested that a general election was preferable to parliament directing government policy on Brexit.

Thus two cabinet ministers were reading from different scripts. It all adds to a sense of chaos at the most critical of times for the government and the country.

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There is little doubt that Mrs May's deal is loathed, and there is growing evidence that she is not much liked either, but when it comes to policy, is there really a better option for the Conservatives at this stage than her deal?

And when it comes to leadership, how can the plotters stage a coup when they themselves are in the middle of their own Brexit civil war?

Whoever is leader and whatever policy they pick, it does not change the parliamentary maths and the difficulty of getting a majority in parliament for any sort of deal.

Which is why, in the end, we could be heading into another general election.

But for now, all eyes are on Mrs May and another seismic political week.