A time for serious MPs to think hard

THERESA May may well have had a very clear expectation that Dominic Raab and Esther McVey would quit the Cabinet when she gave Wednesday’s nighttime press conference outside No 10 and announced that her top team had rubber-stamped the deal.

That would explain the cautious language and the lack of triumphalism – this was a PM at the midpoint of an excruciatingly difficult week with the prospect of a nightmare Thursday ahead.

The resignation of Mr Raab as Brexit Secretary was more damaging than Ms McVey’s departure from the Work and Pensions brief.

Mr Raab’s entry to the Cabinet after David Davis quit in protest at the Chequers outline for a deal restored an element of stability to her minority Government. If Brexiteers decide they cannot serve in her senior team it can only be a matter of time before the curtain falls on the administration.

Her tactical and diplomatic skills will be tested to the limit in the coming weeks, if she can survive the efforts of the most ardent antiEU MPs to oust her from the job. But MPs in all parties will also have to make major decisions which could have profound consequences for their careers and, most importantly, the country.

MPs who are convinced that a no-deal exit would be a disaster face a stark choice. Do they back Mrs May’s deal, perhaps with gritted teeth, as the only alternative to a scenario which it is feared would strip Wales and the UK of investment, or do they chase some other option in the days and weeks left?

The Labour leadership wants to secure a new general election and many MPs in Opposition parties, as well as some Conservatives, want a second referendum.

Advocates of alternatives to Mrs May’s deal cannot afford to be vague. If they are serious, they need to come forward with specific proposals that could be executed in the remaining time.

It would require the repeal of legislation to stop the country leaving the EU on March 29; the EU would have to agree to a request to suspend the Article 50 process.

What we cannot afford is for the collapse of the present negotiations to lead to the UK crashing out of the EU without a deal and descending into chaos. If MPs believe they have credible alternatives to Mrs May’s plan they have every right to use the tools of democracy to pursue such outcomes; but this is not the time for ideological indulgence or timewasting posturing by any faction.