Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots, The Spectator's Daily Politics Podcast. I'm Isabel Hardman

and I'm joined by James Versaith and Katie Balls. Well Katie, we've had the letter that's

supposed to transform Theresa May's hopes of winning the meaningful Brexit vote tomorrow. Tell us about

how transformative this letter actually is.

Well, I think we're beginning to understand why this has been nicknamed Operation Figgleaf

within government, because when you look at this letter, there isn't much new.

There is a reiteration of the fact that you don't want this back, stop to even, you know, prolong, be gone into

and so forth. And there's also the idea that the future relationship doesn't have to be

based firmly on the backstop, which is aimed at looking at lots of Brexiteers who were upset when

the withdrawal agreement first came out because they thought that you

might get trapped in having to do something very similar. However, given that this is all in the

letter, it is not legally binding in the sense of the redrawal agreement. I don't think this is

going to be enough to move MPs en masse. We've seen the DEP already put out a statement suggesting

that they are not happy.

It doesn't change things for them. It's the same with ERG members. So I think there are some

MPs who do want a ladder to climb to have a reason to vote for this deal. I think they will

struggle to do it with this. And they're still a feeling or at least I hope that if they vote

this deal down

that's when the concession will arrive which is legally binding. James how hard are the

whips working behind the scenes on this? I mean they are working flat out I mean not

help by the fact that one of their number has resigned to vote against Theresa May's deal which

can't be great for the mood in the office.

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