Robert Peston Robert Peston

Could Jeremy Corbyn be about to back a second referendum?

We’ve all been focussing on the crisis that would ensue if – as expected – the PM loses the meaningful vote on her Brexit deal ‪on 11 December‬. But just for a moment think about the implications if she wins, because they too would be momentous.

To state the obvious, we’d be out of the EU on terms that are semi-blind – we wouldn’t know our long-term destination. But we would be out. And she, the PM, would rein supreme. She would have crushed her opponents, who would have lost all hope of political advancement or favour. And having delivered Brexit against the odds, she could be pretty confident in staying PM for as long as she wanted, perhaps well beyond the next election – and the election itself would be off the cards till 2022.

Just saying all this out loud demonstrates quite how unlikely it would be – especially after even her former human shield Michael Fallon has said how much he loathes her Brexit plan.

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