WHEN Theresa May goes to church this Sunday, she could be forgiven for praying that bit harder given the week that lies ahead of her.

After the drama of the last seven days at Westminster, next week’s looks set to be even more tumultuous.

As some 30 senior ministers were dispatched to the four corners of the nation to sell the Prime Minister’s bullet-ridden Plan, No 10 was asked why only 30. What better things did others have to do given the depth of the crisis that the UK Government is now engulfed in?

As for the Prime Minister, she was ensconced in her Berkshire bunker, no doubt contemplating the twists and turns that the next few days might bring and whether she will still be in Downing St by the end of it.

Mrs May could also be forgiven for watching Saturday night’s Sunday papers review from behind her Maidenhead sofa as they are likely to be full of screaming headlines about insurmountable parliamentary numbers, threats of ministerial resignations and impending confidence votes in her and her government.

Of course, given the off-on and then off-again saga of the televised debate, the PM can now at least spend Sunday evening watching Strictly while her Labour counterpart sits glued to the final of I’m a Celebrity.

But it will be an all-too-brief respite from Brexit and its political ramifications in the coming days.

Tory Remainer Justine Greening, the former Education Secretary, warned her party that if it continued to be consumed by Brexit, then it would lose the support of Middle England to another party that occupied the centre and centre-right ground. And she said that if the Tories did not change, they would never have another landslide election victory.

“The Conservative party has failed to really change,” declared Ms Greening. “It’s almost like we've got this Old Testament of how Margaret Thatcher did politics and, of course, then it was absolutely current and relevant for Britain but not enough people in our party are looking at who are we now; what's Conservatism in the 21st century stand for now,” the London MP told the BBC’s Nick Robinson in his Political Thinking podcast.

Oh and she also said she would be prepared to consider throwing her hat in the ring if Mrs May left her leadership role willingly or otherwise next week.

On Monday, after a weekend of what ifs, MPs return to Westminster to debate the Brexit Bill and the Union.

There will be lots of talk about Northern Ireland and the impenetrable backstop to the backstop issue as well as about Scotland and the possible knock-on effect of a second independence referendum. I can hear Brenda from Bonnyrigg now.

In the past few days there has been serious talk of Mrs May pulling the vote. Advice that came not only from some of her ministers but also from Sir Graham Brady, who chairs the 1922 backbench committee. Indeed, Tony Blair waded in to echo the advice, noting there was no point in crashing into a “brick wall at speed”.

What has apparently irked the PM’s closest colleagues is that when she stonewalls in public about a Plan B, she does the same to them in private.

Now it could well be in this unpredictable dimension we call Brexit that Mrs May pulls off an outstanding parliamentary escape on Tuesday that would outshine even Harry Houdini. But I very much doubt it.

So what happens when MPs pull the plug on the PM’s Brexit Plan? There is a suggestion that those kind souls in Brussels will offer a helping hand and say the EU is willing to extend Article 50 for a couple of months to allow the UK more time to pull itself together. Yet the deal agreed last month is legally binding and unchangeable. So it is unlikely there will be any sympathy on the continent.

Mrs May has been looking at other options, flying a parliamentary kite about giving MPs a say nearer the time in spring 2020 when the UK and EU27 will have to determine whether or not a trade agreement can be agreed by the December of that year. Probably not.

So MPs could at that point choose to see the dreaded backstop introduced from January 2021 or vote to extend the transition, which would maintain the status quo for however many more months; including compliance with the loathed Common Fisheries Policy. Which, of course, would send Scottish Conservatives into a blue funk, not least David Mundell, the Scottish Secretary.

If the PM goes “down in a blaze of glory,” as one colleague suggested she was determined to do, what happens?

Her suggestion of a “parliamentary lock” has all been about damage limitation; trying to peel away as many Tory rebels as she can to keep the numbers manageable. Anything below 50 is just about manageable; anything above it becomes trickier. Anything above 100 and the smell of toast will be in the air at Westminster.

Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer has already suggested that it is “inevitable” that Labour would next Wednesday put down a confidence vote in the Conservative Government. But the Democratic Unionists have already indicated they would support the Tories in that scenario.

So the prospect of another general election would then evaporate.

But Mrs May will not be out of the woods yet. If the Tory rebellion on the meaningful vote on the PM’s Brexit Plan is more than 50, then the prospect of another confidence vote, a Conservative one in Mrs May’s leadership, looms large.

If this were to happen, then, once again, it would be about the scale of the rebellion.

Already, there are suggestions of backbenchers are being nodded and winked at about future government roles if they backed a certain senior colleague should Mrs May be history by next Friday.

The names being bandied around the oak-panelled corridors include Jeremy Hunt, Sajid Javid and Amber Rudd; all, of course, Remainers. Then there is Boris, waiting in the wings, and still waiting for the rugby ball to come out of the scrum.

It should be remembered that the ultimate choice in any leadership contest goes to the Conservative Party membership and the grassroots appear far more pro-Leave than some of their MPs at Westminster.

As the Brexit deal vote approaches on Tuesday, it is well to note that we are living in extraordinary political times. The country’s future is up in the air as, indeed, is Mrs May’s and the Conservative Government’s.

The moment of truth comes on Tuesday evening but, given the nature of this particular political beast, there’ll be another one along soon after. Westminster has rarely been so unpredictable.