A long delay to Brexit is better than a bad withdrawal deal now

The Speaker has considerable powers and there will be close examination in the coming days as to whether he has deployed them appropriately.

But arguably the more important development relating to Brexit was the clear movement towards support for the Withdrawal Agreement (WA) in recent days. Jacob Rees Mogg MP was yesterday saying, more explicitly than before, that he wanted to see what the DUP was going to do.

It is still possible something will be done to the documents that accompany the WA, such as the Political Declaration, to enable a fresh vote to go ahead. This means the immense pressure on the DUP will be greater than it has ever been.

It was encouraging that the party made clear it is not seeking money. It would have been extremely damaging to Northern Ireland and indeed to unionism to hear of any fresh funding for the Province alongside, or shortly after, DUP backing for the deal, even though such funding in other circumstances is of course welcome.

If the party does back the deal, then there is an onus on it to state explicitly how the analysis of people such as Dan Hannan MEP, about the massive damage the WA does to the integrity of the UK, is wrong.

There is talk about escape routes from the backstop, and Lords Trimble and Bew have done important work highlighting what they say are “substantive changes that will affect and limit the impact of the Irish backstop” (albeit not to the WA itself). But grave questions remain as to whether these will ever be more than theoretical, given the way in which the government has failed abjectly to stand up to Irish and EU demands.

It is, as Mr Hannan and some other eurosceptics say, better to have a long delay and a better deal than a bad deal now.