And it comes just hours after the prime minister visited the Titanic Quarter in Belfast - where he was asked by reporters if he was “captaining a sinking ship ... of Tory MPs leaving Parliament.

At first glimpse, it looks like a ghost ship anchored in the middle of the ocean, but this rusting, rat-infested former U.S. Navy warship is actually at the frontlines of an increasingly tense ...

In use: When they found out they had to spend money on a new uniform, the tennis club members quit like rats leaving a sinking ship. Meaning: literally, a rat used by scientists for research ...