The Tory whips have worked out they have to kill the idea - promoted by ministers like @AmberRuddHR no less - that May's deal could be defeated in first Commons vote and then pass on second vote, after MPs stared into the "abyss". Because this would make the first vote...
...risk free for Tory Brexiter rebels, and they could vote with their consciences at no perceived cost. The idea that the deal would go through not as the main course but as seconds would mean that the PM would not just lose the vote but would lose by such a huge number that...
... there would be no way to bring back the deal from the dead. She has to put the fear of god into Brexiters that it is her deal or no Brexit. So this meaningful vote, when it happens in around 3 weeks, will be life or death for her deal - though if she also make it...
...life or death for her time as PM I am not sure if that enhances or reduces her prospects of victory (it is no secret to her that she is more popular in the country than among her own parliamentary colleagues)
PS sources close to @AmberRuddHR insists she is not a proponent of the "TARP" two-vote plan to get the PM's deal through. But FWIW, it has been one of the great ministerial talking points in recent days
