MPs must hold nerve

IF ever errant Tory MPs need to heed their leader’s call to ‘hold their nerve’ during the Brexit endgame, it is unquestionably now.

A month ago it seemed impossible. But could Theresa May, who has strived to lead the UK out of the EU, be on the brink of achieving a clean withdrawal?

Certainly, the path to March 29 is strewn with hazards. Hitherto, she has failed to persuade European leaders to tweak the detested Irish backstop. Indeed, the EU Parliament’s Guy Verhofstadt was happier hurling juvenile insults about Brexiteers being ‘guillotined’ than focusing on the thorny issue at hand.

But there are encouraging signals that Eurosceptic purists could fall in behind the Prime Minister’s flawed, but sensible, deal if she wins legally-binding concessions.

She has another two weeks to talk EU leaders round – but has hinted she is willing to go to the wire. With a damaging No Deal looming, the stakes could not be higher.