In keeping with the sheer unpredictability of the entire Brexit process this was not the day, after all, when the possibility of consensus was finally binned.

Instead, an 11th-hour compromise emerged that was hailed by both Michel Barnier and Boris Johnson.

With hurdle one safely jumped, the Prime Minister now has hurdle two to overcome: the House of Commons. And it's here that this deal looks set to be rejected.

The DUP have said they can't back the new legal text and in such circumstances it is difficult to see where is goes other than in the parliamentary dustbin.

If the Prime Minister forces a vote on this deal on Saturday it is likely to be the fourth defeat on any UK-EU concordat, Theresa May having lost three votes on her deal.

Johnson may be playing a game of brinkmanship with the DUP and the choreography of the next two days may be about trying to corner them politically, leaving them with nowhere to go if they don't back the latest agreement.

The opposition will not back the deal and Labour are ready to whip MPs on the issue of a second referendum.

Notwithstanding that it is probably reckless to be too definitive in predicting anything on Brexit, a conservative interpretation of the dynamics leads to the inescapable conclusion that the new deal will not pass the Commons and that yet another extension of the Brexit deadline looks almost inevitable.