Hang on... if the govt offers an early post-Brexit election to get Labour backing for the Brexit deal, doesn't that further embolden Conservative MPs in marginal seats targeted by Labour *not* to back the govt, thereby neutralising some gains in parliamentary arithmetic?
....especially Remainy Tory MPs and Tory MPs in Remainy parts of the country...
...But ERG MPs might also be emboldened: they have threatened May not to rely on "socialist" votes to get the Withdrawal Agreement through. I had always thought the ERG twats are bluffing & will support any deal in the end (while grumbling) if it means we leave on time...
But this assumed that the arithmetic would be tight. But if most Labour MPs are supporting the govt (based on promise of early post-Brexit general election), ERG may feel safe rebelling so as to keep their purity & feeding their Dolchstoßlegende.
(I guess the key question is: by proferring an early post-Brexit election, does May gain more votes overall in favour of the WA from Labour MPs than the number of Tory MPs that she drives away?)
tl;dr the messy parliamentary arithmetic is not getting any easier.
