There’s no guarantee that it would return a Commons supportive of any deal that May might put before it.
Perhaps we will find out today why Downing Street and the whips stuck with a motion that risked revolt by ERG members and second referendum backers alike.
Her motion is defeated. Will the EU now abandon her, and egg on Letwin and his supporters to try to take formal control of the negotiation?
The implication is that the Government would win more votes if it kept the ERG happy.
Plus: Snubbed by a Remainer. Delighted for Beth Rigby. Tusk japes, May spooks, Francois almost self-combusts. And: is Brexit Brecksit or Breggsit?
But neither she nor Lidington sounded as if they expect Brexit to end in disaster.
Plus: My exclusive insight into that May Corbyn summit. Why does the BBC indulge Brok? And: Cooper trooper – not so super.
He talks Brady, Norway, prorogation, and postponing Article 50, and explains why the ERG is “not a fourth party”. Plus: does the Queen listen to the Moggcast?
The Speaker is unlikely to select backbench amendments designed to help her, so her least bad option is a Government one.
“Mr Enders’ intervention is a classic example of the sort of Teutonic arrogance which is one of the reasons so many people voted to leave the European Union.”
Plus: Collective minsterial responsibility is seeping away. Plus: A.C.Grayling, Jews, nazis, yellow stars – and Brexit Derangement Syndrome.
“In my personal opinion, Olly Robbins should go to the Tower, in which case he should arrive by river.”
The only way of ruling it out is to change the table itself: in other words, to abandon Brexit, or prepare to – as Remainers should admit.
Today, May is swinging towards her Party’s leavers. The logic of the Chancellor’s position, and that of his allies, is to block her – or try to.