COMMENT: Time for tin hats as Brexit battle begins

Parliament returns on Tuesday and there will be no quarter given as the parties commence battle.

The session will last just two weeks but after a lengthy summer recess we are sure for an intense and bloodthirsty game of trench warfare.

The fortnight will be a minefield for Theresa May to tread and will determine whether she can last as commander and chief beyond the approaching party conference season.

First up will be Prime Minister's Questions a week today.

Will she return rejuvenated after staving off the disastrous election result?

Or will Jeremy Corbyn be able to capitalise on the momentum (pun intended) he had going into the summer recess?

It is crucial for both leaders to land the first blow.

Even if Mrs May comes out unscathed, she has no time to rest.

The very next day Brexit Secretary David Davis will kick off the second reading of the so-called Great Repeal Bill – which will set out Britain's withdrawal from the European Union.

There will be no prisoners.

His adversary, Sir Keir Starmer, has already driven the tank and plonked it on Parliament Square.

Announcing a major shift in Labour policy, he will argue for a long transition period which keeps the UK in the EU single market and customs union.

He will say this will avoid the UK economy falling off the 'cliff edge' once Britain leaves the EU.

Brexiteers say this is Labour trying to defy the will of the people and keeping the UK in the EU and subject to uncontrolled migration and the jurisdiction of the European courts.

Don't be surprised if the party's position changes again by next week such is the malleable form of Labour policy these days.

Over Thursday and Monday the Bill will be debated to the hilt.

Expect blood on those green Commons' seats.

Come Monday evening Mrs May's fragile Government could face its first defeat.

If that happens it will be curtains for the Prime Minister.

Her credibility and authority will be in tatters barely a week back inside No10.

Government Chief Whip and South Staffordshire MP Gavin Williamson will face his biggest challenge yet.

He is in charge of making sure the Government wins the vote by hook or by crook.

Backroom deals will be hammered out late into the night to defend the Government's position while skirmishes over every inch of detail will be held in the chamber.

Leading pro-EU Labour MPs such as Wolverhampton South East's Pat McFadden and Wolverhampton North East's Emma Reynolds may well be leading the charge from the Opposition benches.

While Mrs May will try and reassure her own pro-EU MPs such as Stafford's Jeremy Lefroy without offending the fervent Eurosceptic wing led by Stone's Sir Bill Cash.

And if it goes horribly wrong the internal guerrilla war will escalate.

Young ambitious Tory MPs, who think they should have a crack at the whip, will start mustering dissenting hordes.

Unholy unions and slippery scheming will take place across party ranks.

Who may fancy executing such a mutinous coup is unclear for risk of letting in the enemy that is comrade Corbz and his lefty ultras.

With the Tory party in such a precarious position, who dares to stick in the knife?

There are whispers that Jacob Rees-Mogg – the North Somerset MP capable of making the Queen appear common – is on manoeuvres.

In these turbulent and unpredictable times only a fool would rule it out as silly season folly.

Et tu, Moggy?

And what of Labour?

If Corbyn is unable to inflict an almighty wound on Mrs May then the question of his leadership will again resurface.

Forget his credible loss on June 8. The campaign is over, we are back down to business.

Will he step up to the mark?

There are pitched battles on all sides of the great Brexit divide.

But who will emerge victorious?

If Mrs May gets through the fortnight from hell, she then rolls onto the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester where there will be a beauty parade of MPs lining up to succeed her.

There will be skulduggery, collateral damage, and casualties galore.

As one MP said: "It is going to be brutal and rather undignified – and that is saying a lot when talking of Parliament."

In politics as in life, all is fair in love and war.