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The rumour mill in Westminster is like nothing else.

Murmurs over coffee became excited chatter over drinks in the Commons tea rooms and bars as MPs openly discussed when, not if, the prime minister would be forced out of Downing Street.

After a disastrous Prime Minister's questions session in which Theresa May was challenged angrily by her own side over Northern Ireland it emerged that cabinet ministers felt they had been betrayed over her new Brexit plan.

"What she has presented is not what was discussed in cabinet", one source said, adding that once ministers had taken a look at the bill they knew the changes were not the ones they had grudgingly agreed to just a day earlier.

Mrs May was already facing the prospect of her backbench MPs changing leadership rules to force her out of office, now her closest team of senior ministers were on the warpath too.

Meanwhile, she was facing down her own side in the House of Commons, angry over a list of 10 promises she had made to try and win Labour support for her Brexit bill.

"I don't think I would have been standing here at the despatch box and been in receipt of some of the comments I have been in receipt of from colleagues and across the house if I didn't believe in what I was doing", the prime minister told staunch Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg.

He had asked her the question which had been echoing around Westminster since her speech on Brexit yesterday: Why is she persisting when it is obvious her plan doesn't have enough support?

Because support for her premiership and her Brexit bill has been slipping gradually away since she lost the last meaningful vote.

The steady trickle, however, had become a flood overnight - resulting in an isolated and lonely Prime Minister facing the opposition for Prime Minister's Questions with empty spaces not just on her backbenches but on her front bench too.

A clutch of her most senior pro-Brexit colleagues were cloistered in another room in the palace as Mrs May battled through an exchange with Jeremy Corbyn on school funding and an even more painful onslaught from her own side about Northern Ireland.

There was no wall of noise when she arrived in the chamber, and even less when she stood to speak.

At one point a group of previously supportive Conservative MPs took to opening their mouths but not actually cheering, they just couldn't bring themselves to.

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As if a better illustration of the deep divisions in the party were needed, Dr Phillip Lee stood to ask for a second referendum vote, prompting his colleague Robert Halfon, just a few seats down the same benches, to shout "no way, never".

Labour MPs sat quietly, watching a party usually so good at keeping rivalries behind closed doors openly tear itself to pieces.

Mrs May took question after question from backbench MPs staunchly opposed to her Brexit plans, but not on her policy to leave the EU.

Instead their frustration spilled over after a newspaper article suggested the prime minister blocked a chance to ensure British soldiers serving in Northern Ireland would not be prosecuted.

Impassioned responses were met with calm explanation, until they weren't - Mrs May finally cracked and snapped back at Tory MP Johnny Mercer that her thoughts on the matter should be blatantly obvious by now.

Fast forward a few hours and as whispers that cabinet ministers were seeking meetings with the prime minister grew louder, backbench Conservatives began to gather for a meeting to decide whether or not to force another confidence vote.

Against the current rules, any new vote would require a big change so far resisted by the influential 1922 committee.

First the executive committee went back and forth over the decision, calling in restless MPs before dismissing them all again.

Then the chief whip turned up to meet with the senior committee members, before turning on his heels just two minutes later after telling them the prime minister would be out campaigning for the EU elections tomorrow and suggested her MPs do the same.

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The rule change didn't even come up.

Meanwhile in the corridor, which was fast approaching dangerous levels of overexcited body heat, MPs demanded to be let back in. "Bang on the door", one shouted while another called for gin and a third handed round jelly babies.

Eventually they were allowed back in to be told that, for now, the rules would stay the same by Graham Brady the chair who would meet the prime minister on Friday.

Demands by cabinet ministers for meetings were also shunned, as sources said she might consider talking to her Foreign Secretary on Thursday.

A hot May day full of mutinous murmurs, meetings and demands for the prime minister to stand aside ended in a sweaty and bemused group of MPs trudging off into the evening trying to work out what to do next.

And a prime minister who will spend another night in Downing Street, with still no real prospect of a break in the Brexit impasse.