Beginning the hunt for the next PM

But the paragraph tucked into the short formal letter from Sir Graham Brady to Tory MPs all but marks the end of Theresa May's premiership and the beginning of the official hunt for the next leader of the country. After the lines in the short note restate the prime minister's determination to get Brexit done, it confirms in black and white that after the next big vote, in the first week of June, the prime minister will make plans with the party for choosing a successor. Right now, the expectation is that vote will be lost (although it is not impossible, of course, that Number 10 could turn it round). And the conversation that's been arranged won't just be a gentle chat about what to do next. Senior sources have told me that means, even though the letter doesn't spell it out, that if her Brexit plan is defeated again, Mrs May will announce she is going.