Is PM headed for breaking point?

She remains committed to her controversial Chequers proposals for Brexit, while a number of Tories are calling on her to abandon her plan.

It is like the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object - a political explosion is now beginning to look inevitable, with all the dire consequences that could generate.

On top of all that, a growing number of Tories are demanding a vote of confidence in her leadership - only a handful short of the number required to force such a vote. To make matters even worse, David Davis, who resigned as Brexit Secretary over this very issue, is effectively calling for a mutiny of those Cabinet ministers who do not like her proposals.

Meanwhile, Tory backbencher Nadine Dorries has bluntly called on May to quit, and be replaced as interim leader by Davis. Dorries has already made clear that she’d like to see Boris Johnson eventually take over her reins permanently.

All this leaves the Prime Minister in a ‘no win’ situation. If she backs off or waters down her Chequers proposals, it will be seen as an act of gross weakness, from which it would be difficult to recover. Or if her Tory opponents get even nastier, then her entire political future could be in jeopardy.

The leading Tory Brexiteers challenging her policies, continue to insist that they are attacking those policies and not the individual. But they must surely realise that if she is defeated on a vote of confidence, it could be curtains for her. It all crucially depends on what Theresa May brings back from the critical EU summit later this week. That could, to mix the odd metaphor, either save her bacon or cook her goose.

- Experts have expressed alarm at the state of the fabric of the Palace of Westminster, and a multi-billion-pound plan to make the building safe is being drawn up. But since the problem is supposed to be urgent, why is it years before work starts? The place is supposed to be crumbling in parts, so every year that passes unchecked it becomes more dangerous and more expensive to put right.

So get a move on!