ALEX BELL IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS

The democratic coup began at 8am yesterday when Sir Graham Brady revealed that at least 48 letters from disgruntled Tory MPs had been received by the 1922 Committee and there would be a vote of confidence in party leader Theresa May.

It ended 12 hours later when a majority of Conservative MPs backed their exhausted prime minister by 200 to 117.

Conservative MPs cast their ballots in a Commons committee room between 6pm and 8pm, a forlorn group experiencing a kind of collective breakdown, not so much voting as crying for help.

At first the Commons buzzed with intrigue, but by lunch this had fizzled out.

Mid-afternoon, Boris Johnson walked the corridors looking dejected. The rebels had blown it before the voting even began.

May promised the 1922 group to go before the next election and thus defused the Brexiteers’ battle cry. Yet in truth, the Brexiteers had no momentum and no strategy for the day.

The farrago exposed how British democracy has been hijacked by two groups of fanatical British nationalists, the Democratic Unionists of Northern Ireland and the hard Brexiteers of the Tory party.

Reporting on the leadership votes of Margaret Thatcher in 1990 and John Major in 1994 felt like the Tory party creating nationally important events.

This had the air of a cruel end-ofterm prank by misfits; sending the nation into deeper crisis.

There are only 10 DUP MPs and less than 50 members of Jacob Rees-Mogg’s European research group – strong enough to force a referendum and then possibly to scupper a deal, but now exposed as fundamentally weak.

Ironically, given their love of country, they have made Britain look ridiculous.

For all the drama, nothing is settled. Parliament still has to approve May’s deal, or cancel Brexit. They promised it would be over by Christmas – the end is not even in sight.