The chancellor, Philip Hammond, describes the Chequers deal as merely a means of persuading the EU to start negotiating, while Theresa May believes it is ‘principled and practical’, but will need pragmatism from both sides. Boris Johnson condemns the proposal as the death of the ‘Brexit dream’

It was a week in which the government almost fell and the Tory chief whip was nearly fired. It was a week of skulduggery and political blackmail, a week that might put Britain on course for a no-deal Brexit. As it finished, it left one question on the lips of those involved: “What on earth happens next?”

It began with a powerplay by the hard Brexiteers which has raised questions about whether Theresa May’s vision of Brexit, painfully thrashed out at Chequers, is dead on arrival — and if it is, what she can put in its place.

On Monday morning Downing Street was fighting to block four amendments to Brexit legislation tabled by the European Research Group of Eurosceptic hardliners to blow up the