Not so long ago the wiseheads of Westminster would predict that divisions over Europe would destroy the Conservative party. In the referendum Tory MPs were split 50:50 on whether to leave the EU; the task of putting the party back together again whatever the result seemed impossible.
Yet here we are seven months on, and only one Conservative MP, Kenneth Clarke, voted against the triggering of Article 50, as Remainer after Remainer lined up to say that the will of the people must be respected.
Instead it is the Labour party that is in crisis. Last night 47 of Jeremy Corbyn’s 229 MPs defied his three-line whip and voted against the Brexit bill. They included Rachael Maskell, the shadow environment secretary, and Dawn Butler, the