THERE’S a reason why the Conservative Party is the longest surviving political party in the world, and the week just gone has shown us why.

Last weekend’s media was full of predictions that Mrs May was facing her toughest week yet as the likelihood of a no-deal Brexit suddenly loomed large.

She was facing a difficult meeting with her disaffected cabinet, hostile (and potentially fatal) motions in the Commons coming from her own side, a rampant (relatively speaking) Jeremy Corbyn attacking her across the Dispatch Box and finally a crucial meeting with her backbenchers at the equivalent of their trade union – the 1922 committee.

Mrs May was a dead woman walking, according to the commentators, only she wasn’t. She breezed through the week as her cabinet fell into line, the hostile motions disappeared, Mr Corbyn fluffed his lines and the 1922 committee members fell over themselves to say what a great job Mrs May was doing.

So what happened, why the sudden change?

For the explanation we need look no further than the Conservatives’ unerring survival instinct.

MPs peered over the cliff and saw disaster looming, and not just one disaster but two. The first was that of a no deal.

Despite Mrs May’s somewhat glib “no deal is better than a bad deal” soundbite, she, and her colleagues, have clearly been shocked by what this might mean in practice; including Britain running out of some foodstuffs and vital pharmaceuticals, a border being re-established between Northern Ireland and the Republic, the M26 becoming a massive lorry park, flights from Europe grounded and Eurostar trains not allowed through to run through the channel tunnel. And that’s just for starters.

So despite the heady rhetoric of the hard-line Brexiteers the harsh realities of life outside the EU – with no final deal in place – has clearly given them a wake- up call.

It might have weakened Mrs May’s bargaining position in Europe but at least she now knows that the number of her MPs prepared to vote down whatever she brings back from Brussels is melting by the day.

If concerns about the prospects of a no deal were not sufficient to whip Mrs May’s troops into line, then the second disaster looming is doing the trick – and that is their very real fear of a General Election.

Conservative MPs are not just worried, in the normal way, about ceding power and maybe losing their seats.

They are genuinely concerned that a Corbyn-led Labour Government represents something very different from previous Labour Governments.

A Labour leader such as Tony Blair gave them no sleepless nights, and even though they were far less keen on Ed Miliband, they did not regard him as a threat to ‘the British way of life’ either.

But that is how many of them see a Corbyn-led Government.

If it weren’t for Tory fears of Mr Corbyn winning the next election, Mrs May would have long been out on ear. But once again that old Tory survival habit has kicked in and kept Mrs May in Downing Street.

But so much for the machinations on the Conservative side, are things any better for Labour? The Party is also split on Brexit, although not as grievously as the Tories. There is reportedly, a growing band of Labour MPs, so fearful of a no deal

Brexit that they are said to be contemplating rebelling against their own leadership and voting for any deal that Mrs May finally brings to the Commons. Then there is a substantial number of Labour MPs angered by Mr Corbyn’s refusal to support calls for a People’s Vote – a second referendum – that they might also rebel, although not in the same way.

So stalemate, or is it? As that great political philosopher, Baldrick, said “I have a cunning plan”, and it’s a plan that looks like the only way forward should Parliament vote against both Mrs May’s package and no deal. With the Commons deadlocked, the only logical solution is to put the issue back to the people.

Of course the people have already voted once but that was before anyone had the slightest inkling of what leaving would actually mean.

Now we know that even with the best conceivable deal (and that seems unlikely) being outside the EU will leave us all worse off for many a long year. Only by remaining within the EU can we avoid plunging over that Brexit cliff edge that Conservative MPs began to take notice of this week gone by. There is still time.

Ivor Gaber is Professor of Political Journalism at the University of Sussex and a former political correspondent based at Westminster.