BRITISH GOVERNMENT IN TURMOIL – AT 11:31 A.M. ET:   THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT IS IN CHAOS TODAY, WITH THERESA MAY'S POLITICAL SURVIVAL IN DOUBT.  FROM DAILY MAIL: 

Theresa May's woes deepened dramatically today as a Tory no-confidence vote was triggered. 

Eurosceptics have secured the 48 letters from MPs needed to force a ballot that could end the PM's time as leader.

Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the powerful 1922 committee, said the threshold had been 'exceeded'.

'In accordance with the rules, a ballot will be held between 1800 and 2000 on Wednesday December 12.

'The votes will be counted immediately afterwards and an announcement will be made as soon as possible in the evening.'  

Rebels were jubilant that they had finally secured the numbers last night after Cabinet minister Owen Paterson joined efforts to oust Mrs May in the wake of her humiliating decision to drop a Commons vote on her Brexit deal.  

Mrs May's allies have repeatedly insisted she will fight any effort to oust her - but her position has weakened significantly over recent weeks and may now be under serious threat. 

After the premier returned to Downing Street from a frantic tour of European capitals trying to save her Brexit deal last night, chief whip Julian Smith was seen going into No10.  

One senior Brexiteer told MailOnline Mr Paterson lining up with the rebels was a 'big moment' after the mutiny embarrassingly failed to gain traction before. 

'We have had some false starts, but this looks like the green light,' they said.

Previously veteran Eurosceptics have appeared unwilling to sign up to an all-out revolt, despite deep unhappiness with Mrs May's Brexit plans.   

The development risks throwing the government into turmoil just as Mrs May is scrambling to wring more concessions out of the EU.

She spent yesterday jetting between capitals, holding talks with Dutch PM Mark Rutte in The Hague, German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, and Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels.

COMMENT:  No matter how one might evaluate Theresa May's skill, it is important that her Conservative Party remain in power.  The alternative, the Labour Party of Jeremy Corbin, is too horrible to contemplate.  Corbin would be the most extreme leftist ever to become prime minister.  An America hater, essentially an old red, and a man seriously regarded as anti-Semitic, Corbin would present an enormous foreign-policy challenge to the United States and NATO.  We could not trust him or his crowd with our military secrets.

We await the action in Commons.  Winston, where are you when we need you?

December 12, 2018