IT’S decision time for the eight Conservative MPs in the Daily Echo’s area, with both Brexit and Theresa May’s premiership on the line.

It would take 48 disgruntled Tory MPs to trigger a vote of no confidence in Mrs May by writing to the chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee.

Mrs May would then need to win the backing of at least half her MPs – 158 – to stay on as leader.

No MPs locally have declared that they have written a letter to the committee.

However, Richard Drax (South Dorset), who opposes the deal, wrote on his website: “Let me make it clear that I do respect the PM but there comes a time when, if someone simply does not listen and respond to the many, many warnings of a disaster, you begin to question your natural loyalty.”

Sir Chris Chope (Christchurch) has not returned the Echo’s calls since last week. His close associate in parliament and fellow Brexiter Peter Bone has written to call for a confidence vote.

Meanwhile, Cllr Ray Bryan, chairman of the Conservative Association in Christchurch and East Dorset, has called Sir Chris to an urgent meeting of the local party’s executive on December 1.

Conor Burns (Bournemouth West), a close confidante of former foreign secretary Boris Johnson, has said some colleagues have become “over-excitable”.

He said the Brexit issue was best resolved in the House of Commons, not through a confidence vote in the prime minister.

Brexit-supporting Michael Tomlinson (North Dorset) wrote a column for the Sunday Telegraph in which he opposed the Brexit deal but did not call for Mrs May to go.

Brexit-supporting Sir Robert Syms (Poole) has said the withdrawal agreement negotiated by the government is a “quite a good basis for leaving” and that he is backing the prime minister. He warned that leaving the EU without a deal would be uncomfortable.

Leave supporter Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West), has been considering the agreement, but remains loyal to the prime minister and says the deal could carry support in parliament.

Simon Hoare (North Dorset), who backed the Remain side in the referendum, is backing both the prime minister and her deal, which he has insisted could get through parliament.

Defence minister and Tobias Ellwood (Bournemouth East), who supported Remain, has gone so far as to say that the will of the people on the EU “may well be different now than it was in 2016”. He argued that a challenge to Mrs May could send Britain out of the EU without a deal.

If Mrs May were to win a confidence vote, she would be protected from a challenge for another year. Her critics may therefore prefer trying to change her policy by defeating it in the Commons.

There is a chance it could all end in a general election, at which MPs would once again be keen on speaking to the local press.