Brexit ball is now in Labour’s court

SO, ANOTHER day wasted watching the 40-year-old Tory civil war over Europe being played out in front of the nation.

Whether Theresa May won or lost last night’s confidence vote hardly mattered, the crisis caused by Brexit remains but the fall out could be profound.

It is still almost impossible for the Tory PM to get her Brexit deal through the House of Commons in a vote.

The task – which she does not even believe in herself – is now harder because of the Tory MPs who drove the madness of Brexit in the first place and rose up treacherously against her last night.

The hard-line Eurosceptics in the Tory party have fired their revolver.

It contained blanks but they can now retreat into guerilla politics to try to wreck May’s attempts to get Brexit through the Commons.

She will not get any deal through now without Labour votes.

To do so, she would have to abandon the hard Brexit and consider finding consensus around membership of the customs union at the very least.

That is a moment of opportunity to keep us closely aligned to the EU but also one of danger.

This might deliver a Tory Brexit but it will leave Labour with a headache of their own.

Will the party go to the next election as the handmaidens of Brexit, or will they have been the divorce lawyer that played the Jacob Rees-Mogg game and facilitate a no-deal departure from the European Union?

And do Labour have the courage to back Remain and try to go back to the voters for a people’s vote?

May won her leadership back last night, by basically applying for her own job. Can Jeremy Corbyn match her with some leadership of his own?