Confidence vote: Why every minute counts for Theresa May - BBC News
Newsnight's Nick Watt sets out how the prime minister could win the confidence challenge against her.
It turns out that Harold Wilson was wrong when he said a week is a long time in politics.

In these fraught times at Westminster a long time is measured in hours, minutes or even seconds.

On Tuesday night ministers were suggesting in private that Theresa May would lose today's vote of confidence in her leadership.

A key rule of the process - that victory would keep her in place for a year - was counting against her on Tuesday.

Why? Because that would mean she would lead the Tories into an early general election, the one thing Tory MPs agree must not happen.

Wind the clock forward to Wednesday morning and another rule of the process - that the confidence vote must be held promptly - is now counting in the prime minister's favour.

No 10 aides are taking nothing for granted and know full well that the end of the May premiership could well be signalled at 21:00 GMT on Wednesday when Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 committee, reads out the result.

But if Theresa May pulls it off, there are three factors that would explain how she could replace Bill Clinton as the "comeback kid".

During prime minster's questions, there were big cheers on Mrs May's benches when Kenneth Clarke warned that a leadership contest would be a terrible distraction.

The man she describes as her "rock" - her husband Philip May - watched Theresa May from the Commons gallery.

"The prime minister is in remarkable form," one aide said. No 10 will be hoping that mood lasts beyond 21:00 GMT Wednesday.

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