Theresa May maintains she is still on course to deliver Brexit after Wednesday's humiliating defeat in the House of Commons on the EU (Withdrawal) Bill.
Government loyalists insisted on Thursday that the successful amendment would have little impact, because MPs had already been promised a vote of the final Brexit deal.
What Wednesday’s amendment achieved was to make that vote meaningful, by preventing the government from implementing any withdrawal agreement before parliament approves it by means of a separate statute. MPs will be able to scrutinise and amend this new legislation, effectively vetoing any withdrawal agreement they don’t approve of.
A number of EU political figures said on Thursday that they would not accept any changes to a withdrawal agreement after May has signed off on it. If that is the case, she will have to involve parliament more closely in the negotiation process, ensuring that she can secure a majority for any deal.
Wednesday's vote confirmed in stark terms what has been apparent since last June's general election: that there is no majority in parliament for a hard Brexit. David Davis acknowledged on Thursday that a no-deal Brexit is much less likely than before and support for that option is evaporating even on the Conservative backbenches.
Rebels emboldened
The 11 Conservative rebels (12 voted in favour of the amendment but one also voted against it in a form of active abstention) have been emboldened by the experience and are ready to defy the government again next week by opposing a move to add the date of withdrawal to the EU Withdrawal Bill.
The rebellion would not have succeeded but for the fact that most Labour Brexiteers backed the amendment, with only Frank Field and Kate Hoey voting with the government. Labour's frontbench handled the vote adroitly, backing the Conservative rebels rather than pushing an amendment of their own.
For the prime minister, the defeat in parliament has cast a shadow over an otherwise successful week as EU leaders prepare to agree to move Brexit negotiations on to the next phase. But it has not made her position less secure and most Conservatives now expect her to lead the party at least until March 2019.
Next week, the cabinet will have its first discussion of the end-state that Britain will seek from the Brexit negotiations, and talks in Brussels will resume in January. When they do, Britain’s negotiators will have to look more assiduously over their shoulders at the watchful and newly empowered MPs at Westminster.