Coup -- who'd have thought it

An extraordinary story in the Sunday Times today:

how a senior House of Commons official helped rebel MPs who are plotting to derail Brexit...Dominic Grieve, the former attorney-general, has been in secret communications with Colin Lee, the clerk of bills, with the explicit intention of suspending Britain’s departure from the European Union...Lee drew up three versions of the plan for Grieve — each of which would overturn centuries of parliamentary precedent — and then swore him to secrecy....Two different groups of rebels will then table amendments, to be debated on January 29, that will seek to allow back-bench MPs to seize control of Commons business and force through their own legislation — a device seen by May’s team as a constitutional “coup”...One group, led by Nick Boles and Yvette Cooper, will attempt to outlaw a no-deal Brexit. But a group of more than 20 plotters led by Grieve want to go further by suspending article 50.

Most extraordinary of all, it seems there is an odd procedure to let a minority of backbenchers dominate legislation in our 'constitution'

Their plan would need the support of 300 MPs — not even a majority — as long as they came from five different parties. Only 10 Tories would have to approve, making it all but impossible for May’s team to thwart the plot.

What on earth could prompt the rebels to take such an unprecedented move?

Richard Harrington, a business minister, broke cover last night to say: “We will do anything we can to stop this nonsense of a hard Brexit. We don’t want to be put in a position where we have to resign from the government for that to be the case. That might mean supporting the Nick Boles plan. I’m not prepared to have it on my conscience to sell business down the river.”

May seems to have done some work of her own:

the prime minister’s plan B to salvage her Brexit deal can be disclosed. She wants to offer a bilateral treaty to Ireland that would remove the hated “backstop” from the EU withdrawal treaty and prevent a hard border by other means....However, last night a senior Irish source said the plan was “not a runner”.