British Prime Minister Theresa May is hanging on to her job by the skin of her teeth after surviving a no confidence vote stirred up by Brexit rebels in her Tory party.
May has taken a count and is down but not out after the contest, which she won by 200 votes from MPs to 117.
However, she has become a dead woman walking for the most part as she was forced to concede that she will stand down as leader before the next slated general election in 2022.
May has also had to give assurances that she will go back to Brussels to look for a new Brexit deal that dilutes if not removing the Irish back-stop.
Tory Brexiteers like the troublesome James Rees-Mogg have called for her to resign, arguing that she has lost the support of a third of MPs, which throws doubt in her ability to lead the party.
No confidence
Resignation calls have also come from Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and other rival parties – but crucially, the Democratic Unionists bloc are holding back from withdrawing their support that gives May a tiny majority in Westminster.
The no confidence volte changes little, but has flushed out just how many Tory MPs are against her Brexit deal.
Effectively, what the country is watching is the culmination of a 40 year civil war between Tories for and against membership of the EU.
But May is safe from another bid to oust here from within the party for another year, according to Tory rules. The rules demand the Prime Minister is party leader, so losing the vote would have seen her lose her position as well.
Unacceptable deal
But her Brexit deal is still unacceptable to a horde of opponents and is unlikely to negotiate Parliament in the current form.
The EU is standing firm and politicians around the continent are resolutely stating there is no room to change the terms.
May still has to deliver and if she cannot navigate a way through Parliament to ratify the withdrawal agreement, she might just have to recognise that quitting is the only solution.
That will open another can of worms as it’s hard to see who will become the next leader.
