It is time for Labour and Tory MPs to wake up and see the Brexit reality staring them in the face.

After tonight’s voting debacle, no one in the EU thinks that she would secure a majority for her deal even if they were to give Theresa May everything she and the ERG Brexiters say they want and eviscerated the backstop. The EU has given up on Theresa May as the deliverer of any Brexit and is now pinning its hopes on MPs of all parties coalescing around a customs-union version of the long-term relationship between the UK and EU - which would turn the hated backstop into the bridge to a permanent solution that it was always designed to be. A customs-union Brexit as the only compromise deal on offer will test to breaking point the unity of Tory and Labour parties. But if it is not seized, then the default option of a no-deal Brexit becomes the vivid reality. There is an outside chance that as and when this reality bites, MPs will belatedly think it is all too hard for them and decide to put the choice back to us in a referendum.