It has been a tough week so far for the UK prime minister in the Brexit debate and there are no indications that her job in selling the withdrawal agreement is about to get any easier.

As the debate continues in parliament, it is becoming ever clearer that there is no consensus of majority for anything except that they don’t want a no-deal Brexit.

The chancellor (finance minister) Philip Hammond told the third day of the debate that a no-deal Brexit would have consequences “too awful to contemplate”.

No sign of consensus

What is clear is that parliament wants a deal of some sort, though it cannot decide which type.

It is also evident that the advocates of a no-deal Brexit have become increasingly quiet, with the option of Norway-plus being touted by strong advocates of Brexit.

Yet this is the closest thing possible to being in the EU without actually being a member, and there is also the small matter of the EU being persuaded to accept it.

There are plenty of issues with the arrangement of Norway as a member of the EEA that the EU would want to prevent in any similar model with the UK. There is also the issue of free movement of people.

Withdrawal agreement only option

The sales pitch of the PM is now based on accepting the flaws of the withdrawal agreement as the best compromise rather than no deal or interestingly no Brexit at all.

This would be the best option of all for farmers on the island of Ireland, though the withdrawal agreement would be a reasonable second best.

EU court decision

What is also interesting this week is the intervention of the EU court, which gave the opinion that the UK can unilaterally withdraw its Article 50 notification to leave.

This will be followed up by the official decision on Monday, the day before the UK parliament votes on the withdrawal agreement.

In the vast majority of cases, the EU court decision follows the opinion and it would be no great surprise if, on Monday, the court decides the UK can revoke Article 50 without the endorsement of the rest of the EU.

EU watching and waiting

Meanwhile, Brussels and the rest of the EU waits on the UK to deal with its own affairs in Westminster.

Speaking at the outlook conference on Thursday morning, Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan expressed the hope that the “UK parliament sees sense” and that they were “not planning for a plan B”.