Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team Theresa May suggests crushing local election result is the fault of Brexiteer MPs… Theresa May was speaking at the Scottish Conservative conference as she faced renewed calls to quit. The deadlock over her Brexit deal has been blamed for the Conservatives losing more than 1,000 seats in English council elections… In her conference speech, Mrs May told delegates that all 13 Scottish Conservative MPs had backed her Brexit deal when parliament voted on it in March. She added: “If others had followed-suit, we would be leaving the EU on 22 May. But they did not, and we have had to face up to that fact. “We have had to reach out to the official opposition to secure cross-party support for a deal. That work continues with one clear aim – to get a deal over the line in parliament. “Across the UK, people want to see the issue of Brexit resolved and for our country to move forward. That is our goal and it is one we are determined to deliver.” – BBC News Conservatives lose more than 1,300 councillors – BBC News Brexit tears through UK’s political landscape – Politico How Tories are ‘trapped’ after betraying both Brexiteers and Remainers – Telegraph (£) Theresa May is told ‘we don’t want you’ by furious Tory activist – The Sun ‘None of these, deliver Brexit!’: Furious Leave voters wage #SpoilYourBallot campaign – Daily Mail ‘It was Brexit without a doubt’: defeated Tory candidate takes fire at PM – Telegraph (£) Don’t be fooled by Lib Dems’ rise – Sir John Curtice for the Telegraph (£) …as Brexit talks with Labour are set to resume after the weekend… The British government’s talks with the Labour Party to try to break the impasse over Brexit will resume after the weekend, Prime Minister Theresa May’s spokeswoman said on Friday. May opened talks with Labour a month ago after her deal to leave the European Union was rejected three times in parliament, but despite both sides saying they are constructive, there is little expectation of breakthrough next week. “It’s important that we get it right,” the spokeswoman said of the talks, adding that May understood the frustration of some in Britain over the delay to Brexit after voters punished her Conservative Party in local elections on Thursday. – Reuters Parliament must ‘get a deal done’, Labour’s Corbyn says on Brexit – Reuters May and Corbyn commit to breaking Brexit deadlock after local election drubbing – Sky News Will the local elections shove Jeremy Corbyn into a soft Brexit deal with Theresa May? – Asa Bennett for The Telegraph (£) …although Corbyn’s plea for a Brexit deal dismays Remainers Jeremy Corbyn has been urged against using the local elections as an excuse for a Brexit deal with the government. After the party lost dozens of seats, far short of the party’s hopes to make gains in the triple figures, the Labour leader and John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, both said that the Brexit debate needed to be settled.Mr Corbyn said the results meant there was a “huge impetus on every MP”, whether they backed Leave or Remain, “that an arrangement has to be made, a deal has to be done and parliament has to resolve this issue. I think that is very, very clear.” Three of the party’s MPs most opposed to another referendum seized on Mr Corbyn’s comments as evidence that he had swung against another vote. – The Times (£) Corbyn under pressure to change Brexit stance after disappointing Labour result – Katy Balls for The Spectator Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn have created an explosively bad formula for Brexit – James Forsyth for The Sun Michel Barnier says UK must now make its choice on Brexit The European Union’s Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said on Friday that it was up to Britain now to choose its course on its planned withdrawal from the bloc and that the EU was united and ready for an orderly departure. “EU-27 stand united and ready for orderly Brexit,” Barnier tweeted during a visit to Malta. “For the UK now to make its choices.” – Reuters Brexit Party looking strong after local election results It is clear that voters are unhappy with the two main parties and that Ukip will not be Leavers’ protest vote of choice. Ukip have lost significant support in the polls since since Mr Farage resigned as leader and has tacked further to the right under Gerard Batten. The party’s infrastructure also seems to have deteriorated with Ukip candidates standing in far fewer seats this year than they did in 2015. This leaves the Brexit Party as the only viable unambiguously pro-Leave party for moderate Brexiteers wishing to vent their fury with the government. – Telegraph (£) Will Nigel Farage’s Brexit party sink the Tories? – James Forsyth for The Spectator David Scullion on BrexitCentral today: The Brexit Party needs to articulate the philosophy of nationhood Sajid Javid warns that broken Brexit promises could cost the Tories a general election As the Tory civil war spilled out into the open, Cabinet ministers warned the Prime Minister she needed to deliver on her promise to take the country out of the EU – or lose power to Labour. Home Secretary Mr Javid, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who all have their eyes on the leadership, each issued their demands for Mrs May to get on with Brexit. As the Tory civil war spilled out into the open, Cabinet ministers warned the Prime Minister she needed to deliver on her promise to take the country out of the EU – or lose power to Labour. Home Secretary Mr Javid, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who all have their eyes on the leadership, each issued their demands for Mrs May to get on with Brexit. – Daily Mail Michael Gove claims he’s not ‘gone soft’ over Brexit but says ‘hardline Leavers’ need to ‘face facts’ Michael Gove has insisted he has not “gone soft” on Brexit as he pledged to strive to get it “over the line” in the wake of the Tories’ disastrous local election results. The Environment Secretary told the Telegraph that he opposes a customs union compromise with Labour but hardline Brexiteers need to “face facts” that they do not have the numbers in the Commons for no deal. Speaking from his parents’ home in Aberdeen, he also said he had learned from his botched 2016 Tory leadership campaign and insisted he was now a team player. – Telegraph (£) Britons are most welcoming in Europe towards immigration More people in Britain approve of immigration than in any other European country, a study has found. The YouGov–Cambridge Globalism researchers polled 1,949 Britons. Across 19 countries the total sample size was 21,295. Twenty-eight per cent of Britons believed the benefits of immigration outweighed the costs. That was higher than Germany at 24 per cent, France with 21 per cent and 19 per cent in Denmark. A further 20 per cent of Britons believed that the costs and benefits were about equal, with 16 per cent not sure. The statistics are at odds with the reputation of Britons as being anti-immigration. – The Times (£) Andrew Lilico: This is as good as it’s going to get for the Tories. The party really is over So the Conservatives have lost around one quarter of their seats in the local elections. They managed this on a night when they did not face their two existential rivals – the Brexit Party and Change UK-TIG – because these two parties were not even standing. They managed this on a night when the Labour Party actually lost seats. They managed this on a night when the party that had previously been the most tempting alternative for a large number of their voters, Ukip, melted down to the extent of losing some three quarters of its seats. Just imagine how the Tories would have done had Labour had a good night and the Brexit Party and Change UK had been standing. Andrew Lilico for the Telegraph (£) Bernard Jenkin: When will my fellow MPs abandon the delusion that Leave voters can be sold a Remainers’ Brexit? The most striking feature of the local elections has been seeing both main parties roundly punished in their heartlands: Conservatives in the South, and Labour in the North. This reflects universal exasperation about how MPs have utterly failed to resolve Brexit. Astonishingly, however, many of my fellow MPs still cleave to the notion that for voters’ disillusion to dissipate, all we need to do is “get Brexit over the line” . Yet the PM’s deal would extend this paralysis for years to come. It would cost £39 billion for nothing in return, leaving Britain under direct European rule indefinitely, with no say over new EU laws or court rulings (on, say, taxation, or regulation of the City of London). All with no possibility of escape, unless we are prepared to see Northern Ireland separated from Great Britain. The idea that this could be resolved by Remain-supporting Ministers teaming up with a Remain-dominated Labour Party to concoct proposals which tie the UK even more tightly to EU control is a lunacy, which would amount to electoral suicide for both major parties. – Sir Bernard Jenkin MP for the Telegraph (£) Jacob Rees-Mogg: These disastrous local elections could be a blessing in disguise for the Conservatives While the importance of local government must not be understated, this could possibly be a blessing in disguise as it now gives the Tories the opportunity to make the things right that have gone wrong. Inevitably, this will be with a new leader. Mrs May has already announced that she will retire before the next election but it must be someone who will advocate Conservative principles, put them into action and ensure that promises and deeds match. Most obviously, Brexit needs to happen in a true form. The vassal state that apparently the Government and the Opposition have agreed, including a Customs Union and high alignment, is not the answer. This will simply ossify the failure that has just been punished in the local elections. Jacob Rees-Mogg MP for the Telegraph (£) Kate Hoey: After failing to back Brexit, Labour faces extinction in the North Elements within and without the Labour Party have sought to frustrate and prevent Brexit, including demands for an anti-democratic additional referendum before the first one has even been fulfilled. In seeking to balance the Leave sentiments of traditional Labour areas with the loud Remainer voices in the Party nobody has been satisfied. More and more traditional Labour voters particularly in the north have withheld their votes from us. The Labour leader of Sunderland said bluntly on the loss of 12 seats “This city voted to Leave but our MPs have been campaigning for a second referendum, and local people said “We’re just not having that” – Kate Hoey MP for the Telegraph (£) Brexit in Brief “Europe” is just one aspect of the wider identity politics of the European Parliament election campaign in Poland – Marcus Cadier for Open Europe The dangers of anti-populism – Brendan O’Neill for spiked The council elections were not a second referendum on Brexit – John Redwood’s Diary Farage alone is asking the right questions – Timothy Bradshaw for ConservativeWoman Economy stagnates as Brexit paralysis holds back services sector – Telegraph (£) Bank of England raises UK growth forecast to 1.5% – UK Investor Jeremy Hunt makes another Tory leadership pitch by speaking out against staying in EU customs union – The Sun Theresa May not invited to EU summit- Politico Tory councillor re-elected by one vote after ballot paper spoilt with ‘Brexit’ gets counted due to arrow pointing at his name – The Sun Sir Tony Robinson quits Labour over Brexit and leadership – BBC News