Jeremy Hunt has done nothing to dig Theresa May out of the hole she dug herself with her tin-eared speech last night. Hunt’s suggestion on Today that MPs had a “special responsibility” to make decisions in a Hung Parliament has gone down almost as badly as May’s actual speech last night. Hunt’s defence of May was that she was under “extreme pressure” and “expressing her frustration”…

May’s speech last night was transparently aimed at the public watching the 10 O’Clock News, it succeeded in entirely alienating the one constituency that will actually determine her future in the next nine days: MPs. This looks like a tactical blunder of the highest order given the incredibly slim chances of May ever facing the voting public again. Guido hears that there was actually one extra page of the speech that May removed after a last-minute meeting with a group of MPs – could it originally have been worse?

.@lisanandy calls Theresa May’s statement today disgraceful and questions whether she can survive as PM #Peston pic.twitter.com/LAO0Vz8j6K

— Peston (@itvpeston) March 20, 2019

The sight of Lisa Nandy – one of the key Brexit-sympathetic Labour MPs that May absolutely needs to win over to get her deal through – tearing into the speech as “disgraceful” is about the worst possible outcome May could have hoped for. The only remotely rational explanation is that May has abandoned any hope of getting her deal through and is preparing the ground for a General Election…

Hunt ruled more or less everything in on Today – no deal, a second referendum or even revocation of Article 50 – before claiming that May had been “absolutely clear” yesterday in ruling out a longer extension, which was news to more or less everyone listening, while also undermining her warning to Brexiteers that they’ll get ‘No Brexit’ if they don’t back her deal. If May actually has a strategy at all, now would be the time to deploy it and stick to it…