There is an operation in progress by Tory Brexiters to persuade fellow backbenchers to write to Graham Brady, chair of the 1922 backbench committee, calling for a vote of no confidence in Theresa May as leader of their party.
This is what one of them told me:
‘I’m campaigning myself. We need 60-70 letters, not 48… I know people who are putting letters in today. I think we are the closest ever to her going and I think, thank God, this could be it.’
The reference to 48 letters is the threshold for triggering the vote. But this MP wants a comfortable margin above that, so that the PM can see that a sizeable number of her colleagues want her to go.
This is not an exquisitely centralised and coordinated campaign against her. It is an emotional outpouring, largely by Brexiters, that May’s version of Brexit betrays what they see as the most important prize of leaving the EU, namely ‘taking back control’.
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