How Theresa May realised she must quit as Prime Minister to keep her Brexit deal alive

FAMED for her secrecy and stubborness, Theresa May kept everyone guessing about her future until the last minute yesterday.

Even her closest colleagues still weren’t sure what the PM was going to do as she made the walk to a room jam-packed with Tory MPs at 5pm.

But the writing had been on the wall from Sunday night – when the PM was taken aback by the demands from senior Eurosceptics invited to Chequers to thrash out an 11th hour answer to the Brexit deadlock.

Over drinks at the grand house in the Chilterns, former Tory party leader Iain Duncan Smith and Jacob Rees-Mogg both insisted only a promise from her to quit would get her failing deal over the line.

And for the first time Mrs May, her voice barely recovered from a brutal fortnight, indicated she would consider resigning from No.10.

From that moment, Mr Duncan Smith – a close ally of the PM despite their differences – led delicate behind the scenes negotiations to get diehard Brexiteers to back her deal.

The Sun’s front page on Monday – calling on Theresa May to go under the headline “Time’s Up Theresa” – was met then with almost universal support from Tory MPs.

STEP ASIDE TO KEEP DEAL ALIVE

Nigel Evans – a respected member of the influential 1922 Committee – said: “The Sun is famous for being able to tap into what the Great British people are thinking – and I think you’ve got it spot on.”

One insider said last night: “We’ve known since Sunday really that it was over – and I think that’s when it dawned on her.

“You saw earlier today in Prime Minister’s Questions someone who appeared almost relieved – she was back to her best.”

Even Cabinet Ministers detected a subtle change on Monday – when the PM called yet another meeting over Brexit.

One noted the PM appeared “valedictory”.

“She said we had to govern in the national interest, not the party interest.

“We hadn’t heard that before.”

Theresa May had walked into Downing Street on a wave of euphoria in July 2016 with a blistering speech that impressed even hardened Labour MPs with its vow to help the working class.

She vowed to reunite the Tory party and – critically – deliver Brexit.

But even her biggest supporters have admitted for months that she wasn’t up to the job as the tortuous bid to get her EU deal through the Commons highlighted her weaknesses once more.

And calls for the exhausted PM’s head soared last week in a desperate period that ended with her humiliation in Brussels – as the EU leaders she had once vowed to crush arranged Britain’s Brexit extension between them.

Last Monday afternoon, Tory ‘kingmaker’, the backbencher Sir Graham Brady, went to see Mrs May to reveal there were now growing calls for her to go.

He made clear he had been “bombarded with text messages” by colleagues and urged to confront the Prime Minister with demands she should quit.

Tory leadership favourite Boris Johnson had the first of two meetings with the PM - and reminded her of a pledge only to serve “as long as you want me”.

He also demanded to know how the second phase of negotiations with Brussels would be handled if he decided to back the PM’s deal – only to be given a vague promise of more autonomy for the Brexit department.

Separately, wild rumours circulated about her health – with ex-Tory backbencher Anna Soubry claiming she was in “meltdown”.

It was later revealed Commons staff had even devised an emergency procedure to evacuate her from the House if she collapsed.

But any lingering hope of salvaging her reputation ended at 9pm on Wednesday night when MPs were left open mouthed by Theresa May’s Brexit attack on Parliament.

A marathon day was winding down with drinks with a group of 30 Tory MPs who had backed her deal in “Meaningful Vote 2”.

She then crossed back to Downing Street to deliver a brutal broadside on warring MPs over the Brexit stalemate.

Mrs May told voters she was sure they were as tired of MP’s “arcane procedural rows” as she was. And she promised the public: “I’m on your side.”

Within minutes irate Labour MPs said she would have blood on her hands if the public attacked them. Wes Streeting stormed: “Her speech was incendiary and irresponsible.

“If any harm comes to any of us, she will have to accept her share of responsibility.”

And the reaction from Tories was even more decisive.

KNEW HER TIME WAS UP

Texts and WhatsApp messages flew in once more to Sir Graham Brady and Tory chief whip Julian Smith demanding she go. Ex-Minister Tracey Crouch said she viewed Mrs May’s speech as a “hostile act”.

Fellow backbenchers Anne Marie Trevelyan and Steve Double were also among those happy to confirm they believed she had to quit.

Julian Smith was said to be openly admitting in the Westminster tea rooms that her statement was “appalling”.

One Cabinet Minister told The Sun: “It’s been building all week but I knew she was finished when we saw the reaction to the speech last week.”

A senior source added: “That statement absolutely finished her.

“The way she handled Brexit over the New Year was disastrous – but there was no way back from that – it finished her.”

The EU Council summit on Thursday was the final humiliation as EU leaders slated her pitch for a Brexit extension to June 30.

They rejected the request – which she struggled to explain – kicked her out of the room then came up with two new deadlines for Britain to leave.

The next morning, after Theresa May rushed backed home, French President Emmanuel Macron and EU chief Donald Tusk mocked the PM by grinning as they pointed to the space she would have stood in for the ‘family photo’.

MAY'S FATE WAS CLEAR

And on Friday her de-facto deputy David Lidington was in the advanced stages of a plot to force her from office – sparking a backlash from other Cabinet Ministers who wanted Michael Gove to serve as a “caretaker”.

Both publicly poured cold water on such suggestions on Sunday morning.

David Lidington declared he had no wish to take over from the PM – who he said was doing a “fantastic job”. He added: “I tell you this, one thing that working closely with the Prime Minister does is cure you completely of any lingering shred of ambition to want do that that task.”

Michael Gove insisted it was “not the time to change the captain on the ship”.

Others joked he should have said the Titanic.

But it didn’t matter.

Within hours Theresa May was at Chequers – and her fate was clear.

• GOT a story? Ring The Sun on 0207 782 4104 or WHATSAPP on 07423720250 or email exclusive@the-sun.co.uk.