This could end up being a 'good' day for Theresa May
Angus Walker
Former ITV News Correspondent
This could end up being a 'good' day for Theresa May.
Well after last night’s punishing defeat any day will seem better, but the Prime Minister, whose flagship Brexit plan was flung firmly back in her face, could end today as a winner if she sees off the confidence vote. Most think she will.
She could then be in a position to sit back and enjoy watching the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn coming under internal pressure to push for a second referendum.
Labour’s Chuka Umunna tweeted this for example: "With just 37 sitting days until exit day, there is absolutely no time to waste.
"If the no confidence motion today fails, we must move to the next stage of the UK Labour conference motion and immediately back a People's Vote as the way to stop no deal and resolve this," he added.
How the Prime Minister might enjoy seeing another party leader coming under attack from their own back-benches.
Labour infighting would be a political pressure valve released for the Tories.The PM would be only too happy to the cast Mr Corbyn as an 'enemy of Brexit' and take on the role of a defender of the Brexiter faith.
We are now into day-by-day politics.
Jungle warfare, where ambushes and traps lurk in the parliamentary undergrowth. Long term strategy has largely gone out of the window.
There’s always the danger that today’s vote of confidence may not be a one-off.
The DUP, the Unionist party that keeps Theresa May in power, now holds the Prime Minister’s very future in its hands.
If the DUP tire of her attempts to forge a New Deal then she could lose another vote of confidence.
The DUP will be the first to say that Plan B can’t be a cut and paste job.
Plan B cannot look like Plan A. It needs to be re-framed and reshaped.
However, if you look under the bonnet of the Withdrawal Deal then the real mechanical adjustments need to be on the blessed backstop and we all know how that tends to go...
Going back to the EU yet again with a plea to re-wire the backstop will be met with rolling eyes and sighs of exasperation.
The EU wants to see concrete plans.
The political danger is far, far from over for the Prime Minister, even if today she survives to fight another day.