The big Brexit moment you probably missed

There was a big political event yesterday, far from Westminster, which may turn out to have a greater impact on Brexit than the Tory party confidence vote.

The leader of Fianna Fail, Michael Martin, stood up in the Dail - the Irish Parliament - and announced an extension to his party's confidence and supply deal with Leo Varadkar's Fine Gael. There will not now be an Irish election before 2020.

All of a sudden Mr Varadkar has a lot more room for manoeuvre on issues like, to pick one at random, the Irish Backstop. With the threat of an immediate election lifted he can soften his approach. He has already held a meeting with the Prime Minister in Brussels.

This is not to say the Withdrawal Agreement or Backstop will be changed. But it does make it easier for the Irish Prime Minister to give EU negotiators the licence to write a reassuring codicil to the agreement which could help Mrs May sell it at home.

In all of the excitement yesterday we may have missed the fact that the big event was not in Westminster at all, but in Dublin.

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