In a game of Brexit chicken with her own backbenchers, Theresa May swerved just enough to avoid a crash.
The government won a crunch vote on Wednesday centered on the role parliament will play in the Brexit endgame if she doesn't get a deal, or if she gets one and MPs don't like it.
The political drama turned into a proxy battle over arcane parliamentary procedure, but the upshot was a skin-of-the-teeth win for May and a step back from the brink by some of the Tory soft-Brexiteer rebels.
What it means for Brexit is less clear-cut.
The rebels say that they held off because the government affirmed the sovereignty of parliament over the eventual deal — a statement that could yet prove highly significant. More importantly perhaps, some appear to have decided that it is better to keep their powder dry for further parliamentary battles before the summer recess.
In the end, it was Dominic Grieve's decision, as the figurehead of the small band of Remain-leaning Conservative MPs at the heart of the dispute, to vote against his own amendment to the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill that signaled the rebellion was beaten. He changed tack after the government published a statement which, Grieve said, satisfied him that parliament, and not the executive, will hold the whip hand in those aforementioned endgame scenarios.
Not everyone was convinced.
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