'Zombie' Theresa May staggers on towards her eventual downfall
Huge challenges lie ahead for Theresa May despite managing to emerge victorious following a vote of confidence in her leadership.
Thursday 13 December 2018 10:03, UK
Like a zombie, Theresa May staggers on. Whatever is thrown at her, nothing can bring her down.
But neither can she regain her strength. As she stumbles towards her eventual destruction, is she taking the country with her?
She has overcome and survived the latest challenge but the prime minister immediately now faces an even bigger one.
Had she lost the vote of confidence she would have arrived at the EU summit, politically speaking, as the equivalent of the walking dead.
She has been spared that ordeal but may still be buried by events.
Mrs May has seen off the confidence vote but must now achieve the seemingly impossible - she must secure concessions from EU leaders to change the withdrawal agreement.
Without them, the deal she has negotiated with the EU is dead on arrival whenever it is put before the Commons.
Worse than that, without those concessions the DUP says it will end their support for the prime minister.
The confidence and supply agreement has kept her in power since the election. If that happens she will have kept her grip on her party only to lose control of the Commons and government.
And the brutal truth is, barring a miracle, those concessions will not be forthcoming.
Yes, EU officials are past masters at reframing agreements to sweeten the pill for voters back home, finessing deals to get them past sceptics. But no, they are not going to renegotiate this agreement.
The Irish backstop - as it is known - is a vital insurance policy, says the EU.
Without it - Ireland, the Irish border and the Good Friday Agreement are in peril.
British critics say it consigns the UK to the customs union and a state of vassalage in perpetuity.
Mrs May has tried to bridge that chasm by asking for assurances its use will only be temporary. But as one diplomat put it to me, what use is an insurance policy if you can just wait till it expires.
She and her diplomats have tried every which way to square that circle and have failed.
Her strategy now may well be simply to run out the clock.
Secure in the leadership of her party, at least, she may wait until the 11th hour before putting the agreement to the vote in parliament hoping the stakes will then be so high, MPs will hold their noses and support it.
Or they may not. Divisions in the Conservative Party, already on the verge of civil war have been exacerbated by the last 24 hours.
Brexiteers are furious they have been branded extremists by Chancellor Philip Hammond. Their opposition to the withdrawal agreement has now become adamantine.
The zombie prime minister emerges from the Westminster furnace now to be tested again in Brussels. Can she survive her next ordeal?