By Nigel Evans Mp For The Daily Mail
Published: 23:53 GMT, 23 March 2019 | Updated: 23:53 GMT, 23 March 2019
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Nigel Evans, senior Tory Back Bencher
When I, and 20 of my Tory colleagues, met Theresa May in her Commons office last week, we saw a Prime Minister visibly worn down by the Brexit crisis.
She looked shattered after meeting leaders of other parties along with rebel MPs who have formed their own independent group.
Our encounter was civil but frank.
It is difficult to keep that balance when you are telling your party leader and Prime Minister that her days are numbered.
As it happens, I was not one of those who openly told her that announcing her departure just might help to get her deal through. But sadly, it is something that I now must say.
The Prime Minister must now declare the timetable of her departure to get this most imperfect but necessary accord over the line. She must stay in office for only as long as it takes to win her deal.
Trying to cling on to power will endanger her deep desire to deliver on the referendum result and will only end in tears.
British Prime Minister Theresa May leaves 10 Downing Street in central London for the weekly PMQ session in the House of Commons
I myself have, with great reluctance, already voted once for Mrs May’s flawed plan just to get Brexit over the line.
But such is the peril that Brexit now faces I believe that other Tory Brexiteers who so far have voted against her deal could be persuaded to back it if they were assured that the next phase of our negotiations with Brussels – on our future relationship – were led by a new Tory leader.
Of course, I acknowledge that even her fiercest