Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team Labour braced for showdown over second referendum at crunch meeting today… Labour is braced for a showdown over whether to back a referendum on any Brexit deal when the party’s governing body meets to agree its draft European elections manifesto on Tuesday. Party sources suggested the party was likely to agree a compromise option where it would support a referendum in order to prevent Theresa May’s Brexit deal or leaving without a deal, describing that wording as “the path of least resistance”. However, a public drive for a stronger line has been led by the party’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, who has urged remain-supporting members to write to the national executive committee’s members, including Jeremy Corbyn. More than 100 Labour MPs have written to NEC members to argue that Labour should use the election to campaign for a second referendum in any circumstances and more than 20 Labour MEP candidates have pledged to back a referendum and then campaign to remain in the EU. On Monday, the Labour MPs behind the parliamentary drive for a confirmatory referendum on Brexit also wrote to the NEC urging it to use the European elections to campaign for a fresh poll regardless of whether a deal has been reached with the government. – Guardian Corbyn under pressure as Labour meet to finalise European election manifesto – Telegraph (£) Jeremy Corbyn under pressure ahead of second referendum showdown – The Mirror …as Tony Blair laughably claims a second Brexit referendum would be a ‘healing process’ for the nation… Tony Blair was blasted today after he claimed a second Brexit referendum would be a “healing process”. The Europhile former PM made a direct appeal to MPs trying to dodge responsibility for delivering Brexit. He told them they should punt the final decision to voters so they can’t be held to account for what happens. But Brexit backers told him to butt out and insisted a rerun of the 2016 vote would only divide Britain even more. Speaking to the Institute for Government think-tank, Mr Blair insisted a second EU referendum was the only way to decide Brexit. The ex-PM said: “The truth is there are different varieties of Brexit and you have to choose one. And when you choose one it then becomes apparent what your problem is. Because your problem is there is a downside to whatever option you choose.” – The Sun …while Young Labour’s rep on the party’s ruling body warns remaining in the EU should not be an option in any new referendum Staying in the EU should not be on the ballot paper of any fresh Brexit referendum, Labour’s representative for young people has declared. Ahead of a crunch vote by the party’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) on Tuesday, Lara McNeill said that it would “not be wise” to commit to putting Remain on any ballot paper in another public vote. McNeill, a final year medical student, is one of the 39-strong body due to decide Labour’s European manifesto policy as the party’s senior figures gather ahead of the May 23 elections. With the NEC finely balanced between those who want a referendum on “any Brexit deal” and on “a Tory Brexit deal”, McNeill is one of the swing votes that could tip the balance towards simply re-stating the party’s conference motion from last year. – Huffington Post Cross-party Brexit talks reportedly take a positive turn towards possible compromise… Cross-party talks on Brexit between the government and Labour have moved on to the “nuts and bolts” of a possible compromise, Labour’s Sue Hayman has said, with sources on both sides suggesting discussions were taking a more positive tone. Talks with senior shadow ministers and officials are likely to continue this week, including on key areas of previous disagreement that had previously been swerved, including a customs union, single market alignment and dynamic alignment of workers’ rights and environmental protections. It is understood no new offer from the government has been put on the table but participants emerged with a new optimism about a change in tone and a feeling that there were grounds to continue discussions, a marked contrast to last week’s talks. – Guardian …while David Lidington confides the prospect of a second referendum has been raised during the talks Conservative MP David Lidington has confirmed that the prospect of a confirmatory referendum has been discussed as part of the cross-party Brexit talks. Labour policy is to have a second referendum on any agreed Brexit deal but Mr Lidington is cool on the idea. “We’ve always known this is part of Labour’s policy platform, so it’s something I would have expected them to raise at these meetings and they have,” Mr Lidington said when asked about a second referendum after Monday’s talks. “Equally, they know this is not something that is government policy and the last couple of time it has come before the House of Commons, it has been defeated.” Labour’s team are looking to progress talks with the Conservative as they enter their fourth week but a so-called people’s vote, would seem to be a sticking point. – ITV News Former ministers to chair new initiative pursuing alternative arrangements for the Irish border This morning sees the launch of a new initiative to develop “credible and practical alternative arrangements relating to the Irish border that can be delivered in a timely fashion to ensure that the UK retains full flexibility in its future negotiations with the European Union”. The Alternative Arrangements Commission is to be co-chaired by former International Trade Minister, Greg Hands, and Treasury Committee Chair and former Cabinet minister, Nicky Morgan, and will be a cross-party venture with yet-to-be-identified representatives from across the political spectrum, with a view to producing a report in June. But, intriguingly, it has not been established by the Government – which some might suggest ought to be working night and day on this very issue – but rather Prosperity UK, the organisation co-founded by Sir Paul Marshall to bring together business leaders, academics and policy-makers to seek solutions to Brexit issues and look constructively at the UK’s post-Brexit future. – BrexitCentral Theresa May must present her final Brexit deal to MPs by next week in order to meet her 30th June deadline for leaving the EU Theresa May must introduce her final Brexit deal to Parliament by the end of next week – or miss her June 30 deadline for leaving the EU, The Sun has learnt. A Cabinet minister said the Withdrawal Agreement Bill, the crucial law that will enact our EU departure, will need roughly six weeks to pass both the Commons and Lords. The Government has all-but given up hope of getting a Brexit deal through in time to avoid having to go ahead with the European elections on May 23. The PM has instead focussed her efforts on a June 30 exit date – because that is the last possible date before the new MEPs are due to take up their places. The terms of the latest extension agreed with Brussels allows Britain to leave on June 30 – otherwise our departure will be delayed until October 31. The influential Cabinet minister said the PM must introduce the Bill to the Commons by May 10 – seven weeks before June 30. – The Sun Jeremy Hunt warns May a Brexit deal with Labour could alienate more Tory MPs Jeremy Hunt has warned Theresa May that a Brexit deal forged with Labour could be even less popular with Tory MPs than the one they have already rejected. The Foreign Secretary told The Telegraph that the cross-party talks risked alienating Conservative MPs so that “you lose more Conservative MPs than you gain Labour MPs”. He said he did not expect talks with Labour to lead to a “rose garden moment” as he questioned whether Jeremy Corbyn was “serious about delivering Brexit”. He said: “By all accounts, while they [the talks] have been more detailed and productive than we thought and expected, it’s still going to be very difficult to imagine a rose garden moment”, referring to the coalition press conference David Cameron and Nick Clegg gave after the 2010 election. – Telegraph (£) Don’t mention Brexit! Tories fear enraging voters at polls Conservative party chiefs have instructed candidates for the European parliament to lie low for fear that campaigning will enrage voters before Thursday’s local elections, according to senior party figures. Theresa May’s official spokesman insisted yesterday that she still believed it was possible to avoid holding the European elections on May 23 because the Commons could yet ratify her EU divorce deal in time. However, Conservative campaign headquarters has already pencilled in May 7, a week tomorrow, for the official launch of its campaign, according to insiders. Candidates have been told to hold back until Friday as the party tries to keep Brexit out of the news in the run up to local elections. – The Times (£) Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party will let Jeremy Corbyn become PM by taking votes away from Tories, warns Jacob Rees-Mogg… Nigel Farage will end up helping Jeremy Corbyn get into No10, Jacob Rees-Mogg warned today. The top Tory Brexiteer claimed the Brexit Party risked splitting the Conservative vote and letting Labour get in. And he insisted that any Tory MPs or councillors who vote for Mr Farage’s new party should be automatically fired. Mr Rees-Mogg vowed to stay loyal to Theresa May – even though his own sister has defected to the Brexit Party. He told LBC: “I greatly respect Nigel Farage and I fully understand what my sister Annunziata is doing in supporting them but I don’t think it’s the right way to do it. If we get to a General Election with the votes split between the Conservative party and the Brexit Party, all that does is let Jeremy Corbyn in who doesn’t deliver Brexit at all because the Labour party is quite hostile to it. – The Sun …as The Brexit Party eyes the seat of disgraced ex-Labour MP, Fiona Onasanya Nigel Farage’s new Brexit Party plans to capitalise on its poll ratings with a tilt at a Westminster seat. It will stand in Peterborough if a by-election is triggered later this week by a “recall” petition against the disgraced MP Fiona Onasanya. The former Ukip leader’s new group has startled the main parties after polls put it on course to win the European parliament elections on May 23. Surveys have also suggested that large numbers of Conservative activists and even Tory councillors plan to vote for the Brexit Party. Mr Farage has urged voters to use the European elections to send a clear message to Westminster, which he says is blocking Brexit. A spokesman for the Brexit Party said that if a by-election was called in Peterborough “it is highly likely we will stand. We would be fighting Peterborough to win it.” – The Times (£) Jean-Claude Juncker says the UK was never ‘comfortable’ in the EU European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has said the UK has never been “comfortable” in the EU and pointedly refused to say he shares the hope of European Council president Donald Tusk that Brexit will be abandoned. In an interview with a number of Polish, Czech and Slovak newspapers, Mr Juncker said the UK’s membership of the EU was based on “business, not values.” Asked about Mr Tusk’s “silent hope” that the UK will never leave, and if it made sense for a country to be kept in the EU if it didn’t wish to remain, Mr Juncker replied: “This is nothing new! I have been following UK affairs for a very long time.” – Irish Times William Hague: Remainers have blown the EU elections, and increased the chance of a no-deal Brexit Like most people who have been an MP, I will never forget the day I was elected to Parliament. For one thing, it was snowing in the Yorkshire Dales that cold February day in 1989, and the bleak landscape seemed to match the political fortunes of the Thatcher administration at the time. More significantly, I was able to win a by-election – the last Tory to do so while the party was in government for a quarter of a century – because my opponents could not agree on a joint candidate. Together, the Social Democratic Party and the Liberal Democrats received many thousands more votes than I did, but they were so neatly divided that I beat both of them. This mattered: the SDP disintegrated soon after that. – Lord Hague for the Telegraph (£) Henry Newman: Cross-party talks offer one of the few ways forward in the Brexit stalemate There’s a stalemate: Government is paralysed; Westminster is drifting. With no hard deadline looming for months, MPs have little incentive to make decisions on Brexit. Meanwhile, an enormous question mark hangs over the Prime Minister’s future, with pressure from Tory activists and within the 1922 Committee of MPs. Because of the Conservative failure to deliver Brexit, the Party is expected to take a serious beating in the European elections later next month. It’s notable that the sharp decline in the Conservatives’ poll rating correlates with their deferring Brexit. Support for the Government held strong despite its supposedly unpopular Brexit deal, but collapsed after Article 50 was stretched out to Halloween. Many erstwhile Tory supporters are likely to register their anger with a vote for the new Brexit Party on 23rd May. Yet while their profound frustration may be understandable, a protest vote is hardly the basis of a way through or a policy plan for delivering Brexit. At the core of the Government’s Brexit nightmare is the lack of a clear majority for any path. – Henry Newman for ConservativeHome Brendan O’Neill: The Brexit Party is the earthquake British politics needs Even before the Brexit Party has taken part in an election, it has done something incredibly important – shattered the caricature of the Brexit voter. For nearly three years, the Remainer elites that dominate public life and the political sphere have promoted a demeaning, borderline libellous image of the average Brexit-backer. Brexit is the handiwork of racists, they claim. It’s all down to old white men. It’s pale, male and stale. It’s something only toffs wanted, they insist, and the poor voted for it only because they were hoodwinked by a bus. Charming. And now here comes the Brexit Party with a dose of reality. The Brexit Party is the most dynamic and diverse new party to have emerged in years. Its candidates come from across the political spectrum, from various social classes, from different cultural backgrounds. – Brendan O’Neill for Spiked Robert Peston: Will Labour commit to referendum on any Brexit proposed by this government? Sources close to the Labour leader believe the emergency NEC meeting on Tuesday, which determines the Labour manifesto for the EU elections, will agree a formula that is “a restatement” of the party’s equivocal and prolix party conference resolution of last September. But a senior trade union source tells me that if Unison, GMB and Usdaw are bulldozed on Tuesday, if their demand for Labour to commit to a “confirmatory” referendum on any Brexit deal is simply ignored, Corbyn and his colleagues are “being delusional about the likely consequences”. The well-placed trade unionist added: “They have no idea what’s going to hit them and the scale of the backlash they will face” – which captures for you how emotions are running very high. And given that Unison, the GMB and Usdaw are respectively the first, third and fourth biggest trade unions in the UK, they can certainly cause trouble for Corbyn, if so minded. – Robert Peston for ITV News Brexit in Brief Labour members know what we need: a referendum and a campaign for remain – Laura Parker for the Guardian How Tony Blair helped to double Britain’s contributions to EU budget – Express Kezia Dugdale set to leave politics over Labour’s Brexit stance – Guardian CWU reaffirm opposition to second referendum – Morning Star New IRA says Brexit helps its cause and draws in young recruits – Independent Theresa May ‘blackmailed’ Tory into voting for her EU deal, claims MP – Express