ONE Whitehall insider mused at the latest twist in the Parliament versus Government drama and said: “It’s not Parliament that’s sovereign, it’s John Bercow.”

After last week’s drama when the Commons Speaker “championed” the cause of Parliament and enraged UK ministers with his procedural ruling, there is now talk that, Mr Bercow, as he sits on his chair, or should that be throne, will go even further this week.

It had been expected that when, following her inevitable defeat tomorrow, Theresa May returns to Parliament with Plan B, the Speaker would allow amendments, which could mean MPs voting to extend the Article 50 process.

Indeed, the day before Mr Bercow made his controversial ruling on the Dominic Grieve amendment - to force the PM to return to the House within three days with an alternative - it has emerged he met the former Attorney General, a fellow Remainer. Hence, the talk of a conspiracy.

Now, however, the suggestion is the Speaker, in cahoots with a number of backbenchers, is planning something much more dramatic; to suspend Commons Standing Order 14, which states: “Government business shall have precedence at every sitting.”

It has been on the Statute Book since Irish Nationalist Charles Stewart Parnell’s campaign of obstructionism in the 1880s. To suspend SO14 would mean MPs being able to run parliamentary business.

In practice, this would end Government as we know it because ministers would not be able to command time to put bills - endorsed by voters at elections, incidentally - through the Commons.

Understandably perhaps, one senior Government source noted: “This sounds like a very British coup and one that has profound implications for democracy.”

Yet the ghost of Machiavelli is often seen walking the corridors of Parliament when intrigue grips Westminster.

It transpired that news of the coup came to light after Julian Smith, the Government Chief Whip, overheard a plotter, a former Cabinet minister, talking about it in the MPs’ cloakroom.

Remarkably, he swiftly got legal advice, which concluded if the parliamentary coup succeeded, it would represent a “clear and present danger to all Government business”. Without control of the Order Paper, ministers could not implement Government laws. It concluded: “The Government would lose its ability to govern.”

Tory backbencher, Anna Soubry, a leading Remainer, accused No 10 of “nasty smear tactics” against Mr Grieve and other Remainers designed to “scare” politicians into backing the PM's agreement. Surely not.

One Tory MP detected the whiff of a very large rodent.

“Julian eavesdropping in the cloakroom? Getting legal advice? It all sounds a bit far-fetched and a crude attempt to get Brexiteers to back the May deal. It won’t work.”

Fasten your safety belts, it’s going to be a very bumpy week.