Which of the Conservative and Labour parties is most likely to split over Brexit? Or perhaps it is more apposite to say which party will break up first, since the gravitational force of competing visions of the UK’s future relationship with the EU are threatening to fracture each of them.
On my show last night the divisions in the Tory Party were on full display – with the chief secretary Liz Truss implying that the prime minister is wasting her time wooing party leaders to find a Brexit compromise, and should concentrate instead on reaching out to the 118 Tory MPs and the DUP’s 10 who voted against her.
What Truss appears to believe is that if the EU can be persuaded to either remove the backstop or put a time limit on it, the PM’s deal would pass through the Commons.
Which, for what it’s worth, is not what Theresa May thinks, according to those close to her: she has been persuaded, I understand, both that the EU won’t move enough on the backstop, and that even if it did she would not win a majority.
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