The DUP have dealt a killer blow to Theresa May's plan as they refused to back her 'toxic' Brexit deal.
The Northern Ireland party, which props up the Tories in Parliament, have consistently opposed the PM's deal because of the Irish backstop.
As a number of Brexiteers are indicating they could cave and back the deal to avoid no Brexit, the DUP are holding firm.
On Tuesday they insisted they still preferred leaving without a deal to Theresa May's deal.
Their Brexit spokesman Sammy Wilson said: "Even if we are forced into a one-year extension, we at least would have a say on the things which affect us during that time and would have the right to unilaterally decide to leave at the end of that one-year period through the simple decision of not applying for a further extension."
"Surely this is a better strategy than volunteering to be locked into the prison of the withdrawal deal with the cell door key in the pocket of Michel Barnier?"
In an impassioned piece in the Daily Telegraph, Mr Wilson wrote that parliament and the Prime Minister were engaged in a "war of attrition" as she tries to wear down MPs to get them to back her deal.
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A spokesman for the party said: "Our position remains unchanged and as previously set out.
"We will judge all proposals and scenarios on the basis of our objectives to maintain the integrity of the United Kingdom and deliver on the referendum result," the spokesman said.
Mr Wilson made that absolutely clear in his piece for the Telegraph.
He said: "We will never volunteer to Northern Ireland being torn from the rest of the UK or our economy being damaged by having trade restrictions between Northern Ireland and our main market in Great Britain.
"We have worked assiduously with the Government to try to get changes to the agreement and will continue to do so, but we will not vote for an unamended or unchanged version."
It comes as European Reform Group chief Jacob Rees-Mogg said the choice now seemed to be between May's deal or no Brexit.
"I have always thought that no-deal is better than Mrs May's deal. But Mrs May's deal is better than not leaving at all," Rees-Mogg, who has described the deal as leaving Britain "a slave state", said in a podcast.
"I think it becomes the choice, eventually. But whether we are there yet is another matter ... Leaving the European Union, even leaving it inadequately and having work to do afterwards, is better than not leaving at all."
Another eurosceptic Conservative lawmaker, Michael Fabricant, said he too had come to the same "dreadful conclusion" that May's plan was the "least worst option but the only practical way forward for now".
