It is playing out just as Olly Robbins – the civil servant negotiating Brexit for the PM – told his mates it would in that Brussels bar, as overheard by my ITV colleague Angus Walker.
Because the PM has just said that she will not put a reworked Brexit deal to MPs for a vote till 12 March.
Well actually she said “we will ensure that happens by 12 March” – which probably means on 12 March.
And that in turn means MPs will face what may be their last chance to decide whether the UK leaves the EU with a deal desperately close to the wire, 17 days before the fateful moment of no return, Brexit day on 29 March.
May was speaking to journalists in the traditional airplane “huddle”, as she travelled with Robbins and her ambassador to the EU Tim Barrow for informal Brexit talks with EU leaders in Egypt (of all places), where a summit between the EU and the League of Arab States is taking place.
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