TORY party infighting desce-nded to a new toxic low yesterday, with one backbench MP saying the moment was coming when Theresa May would soon have a knife “stuck in her front and twisted”.

Other politicians talked of May being in a “killing field”, and that she should “bring her own noose” to a “show trial” on Wednesday.

The brutal language comes as reports suggested 46 backbenchers have submitted letters to the chair of the 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers calling for a vote of no confidence – just two short of the threshold needed to launch a leadership contest.

The Prime Minister’s Brexit secretary Dominic Raab tried to laugh off the claims, telling his colleagues “to play for the team”.

Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, Raab said the threats were now being “made every week”. He added: “We are at the end stage of the negotiation. It is understandable there are jitters on all sides of this debate.

“We need to hold our nerve. There is an end in sight in terms of a good deal.”

An unnamed Cabinet minister told the Sunday Times that May was “endangering her own government”.

They said: “This is the first time I’ve thought it could fall over. She’s not listening. That’s kamikaze.”

May’s floating of the possibility of extending the transition period has caused dismay across her party.

Backbench MP Andrew Bridgen, who has long been a critic of May, told the Sunday Times that the Prime Minister needed to come along to the meeting of Tory backbenchers on Wednesday to keep her job.

“This week Theresa May will find that she is drinking in the last chance saloon and the bad news for her is that the bar is already dry.

“If she doesn’t turn up to the ’22 that will only make the letters go in even faster.”

Former Tory rising star Johnny Mercer doubled down on comments made earlier this week when he told the House Magazine that the current administration was a “shit show” and he would not vote Tory if he were not an MP.

Writing in the Sunday Times, he said the Prime Minister was guilty of an “abject failure to govern”.

“I cannot continue to support an administration that cannot function,” he said.

“We need technocrats and managers … but at this defining moment in our history, Britain cannot be led by them.”

One senior Brexiteer told the Mail on Sunday: “She should bring her own noose to the ’22. Short of an uncharacteristically powerful, persuasive and coherent performance, then I think her time will be up.”

Another Tory MP, a former Cabinet minister, likened May to a “lame cockroach” who “keeps going” in an “irradiated” environment.

An ally of former Brexit secretary David Davis told The Sunday Times that May was now entering “the killing zone”.

Another MP, who the paper says hopes to succeed her, added: “Assassination is in the air.”

There was widespread disgust at some of the language being used.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: “This morning I’ve seen quotes from Tories to the effect that PM is ‘entering the killing zone’, faces ‘assassination’ and should take ‘her own noose’ to a meeting.

“Few disagree with her more than I do, but language like this debases politics. Get a grip, Tories.”

Former Tory minister Robert Halfon called for calm: “I say to the people giving those quotes, this is not the way to change things.”

But Brexit Minister Suella Braverman declined to condemn the comments. She called on the Tories to try to stick together.

She told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “Colleagues are free to express themselves in the way they wish, but I am very clear that our party is stronger when it’s united.”

Meanwhile, a committee of Lords has today warned that people in Northern Ireland will have to choose between being on British time or Irish time, if Brexit negotiations fail.

A report by a Lords committee says Brussels is planning to end the practice of changing the clocks twice a year after research found it was unpopular.

It would mean EU countries had to choose to adopt permanent summer or winter time, leaving Belfast potentially having to decide whether to align itself with clocks in the Republic or the rest of the UK, peers warned.

They said failing to secure an exit agreement would mean rules on the matter in relation to Northern Ireland would “fall away”.

“If the UK then decided to maintain summertime arrangements, Northern Ireland (assuming the devolved institutions have been re-established) would have to choose between having a one-hour time difference for half the year either with the Republic of Ireland or with the rest of the UK,” a report by a Lords committee said.

Although the changes are not due to come in until after the UK leaves on March 29 next year, the UK would have to adopt the measures during any transition period, peers said.

Current rules mean every state has to switch to summer time on the last Sunday of March and switch back to winter time on the last Sunday of October.