Listen to your voters – and back Mrs May

‘DEPEND upon it, sir,’ said Dr Johnson in one of his most famous aphorisms, ‘when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully’.

Nobody is suggesting hardline Tory Brexiteers and malcontents in the Democratic Unionist Party face the rope if they carry out their threat to defeat Theresa May’s Brexit deal and force her out.

But if anything will concentrate their minds on what matters most to them and the United Kingdom, it must surely be John McDonnell’s warning that Jeremy Corbyn will seek to form a minority Labour government if the Prime Minister falls.

Quite how he would achieve this remains unclear. It may be that he hopes for a coalition with Lib Dems, Scottish and Welsh nationalists. He could even mobilise his friends in Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA, whose seven MPs have so far refused to take their seats since this would mean swearing an oath of loyalty to the Crown.

What is absolutely clear is that any form of government led by Mr Corbyn would be anathema to everything Brexiteers and the DUP stand for.

As if to rub the point home, Mr McDonnell yesterday shifted his ground on Brexit yet again, keeping open the possibility of a second referendum with Remain among the choices on offer – an option he had previously ruled out.

Meanwhile, Cabinet ministers Amber Rudd and Liz Truss spelled out that MPs would almost certainly find a way of blocking a ‘no deal’ Brexit, with its incalculable risks to their constituents’ livelihoods.

In other words, the choice facing wouldbe saboteurs may well be between Mrs May’s deal – painstakingly thrashed out over thousands of hours of talks in Brussels – and no Brexit at all.

Whatever the truth, the ‘Dad’s Army’ plot masterminded by Jacob Rees- Mogg appears to have had the opposite of its intended effect. Not only have MPs ignored his call to topple Mrs May, but voters have dramatically rallied behind her, sending her support surging from 33 per cent just a week ago to 46 per cent today.

Heaven knows, she deserves it, as she battles on tirelessly to secure every last concession for Britain. This paper entreats MPs on both sides of the House to put their constituents’ interests first, end the crippling uncertainty – and back her deal.