Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team Theresa May to request ‘long’ extension to Article 50 to prevent No Deal next week (but wants a get-out clause to go on 22nd May if she can do a deal with Jeremy Corbyn) Theresa May is poised to formally request a fresh delay to Brexit today to prevent Britain leaving the EU without a deal next week. The Prime Minister will write to EU Council President Donald Tusk to request an extension to Article 50 that will delay the UK’s departure beyond April 12, Government sources said. Mrs May will seek a ‘termination clause’, which would allow the UK to leave on May 22 – the day before European elections – if a deal can be pushed through the UK Parliament. But if this fails, the delay is likely to extend until at least the end of the year. Attorney General Geoffrey Cox last night warned that Britain would be stuck in the EU for at least another year unless the Government cuts a soft Brexit deal with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. He said it was now the only way in which Britain was likely to leave the EU next month. Several Brexiteer ministers are pushing Mrs May to rule out a long delay, with a handful even urging her to take Britain out of the EU without a deal next Friday if Parliament continues to refuse to pass her plan. – Daily Mail Donald Tusk will tell the EU to back Brexit ‘flextension’ for the UK… Donald Tusk will push the EU27 to offer Theresa May a one-year “flexible” extension to article 50 with an option to leave the EU once the withdrawal agreement is ratified by parliament, according to senior EU sources. The European council president will tell leaders at a summit on Wednesday the “flextension” idea would avoid the heads of state and government having to consider extra Brexit delays every few weeks. The EU27 will need to unanimously agree to the plan, which Tusk is backing after hours of preparatory meetings in recent days, senior EU sources told the Guardian. The former Polish president is determined to give Downing Street as much flexibility as possible to avoid any suggestion that Brussels is seeking to trap Britain in the EU. There will be concerns in some EU capitals about both the length of the extension, given the potential for the British government to meddle in the EU’s long-term planning, and the uncertainty it would create about the UK’s position in the bloc. The failure of the parliament to coalesce around a post-Brexit vision will also be a source of frustration for Emmanuel Macron, the French president, who has insisted that the UK must have a “credible plan” for the EU to offer any further extension at all. – Guardian …but Cabinet ministers plot to stop May’s bid for a long Brexit delay Cabinet ministers are seeking to block Theresa May from agreeing a Brexit delay of up to a year. The prime minister has not yet secured cabinet support for a long extension but ministers fear that she will press ahead anyway. Mrs May is due to set out her intention to delay Brexit in a letter to Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, in the next few days. No 10 has declined to say whether she will consult the cabinet before the letter is sent. EU leaders will meet to decide whether to give Britain an extension — and how long it could be — on Wednesday night. Cabinet members were in open revolt yesterday. Geoffrey Cox, the attorney-general, told the BBC that the extension was likely to be “longer than just a few weeks or months”. He said that Mrs May “would have little choice but to accept the extension that she’s offered” as a result of legislation passing through the Lords last night that would enable MPs to force her to seek more time. – The Times (£) May to make written Brexit offer to Corbyn… Theresa May is expected to write to Jeremy Corbyn to set out the government’s offer on Brexit, with negotiations due to resume in Downing Street on Friday. With just five days to go before the prime minister must travel to Brussels to request a further Brexit delay from EU leaders, little progress appears to have been made on finding a compromise deal both Labour and the Conservatives can back. But after the government delegation reported back to May on Thursday, officials began drafting a letter setting out a way forward. One government source suggested that, in accordance with Labour’s demands, it would include the proposal that a confirmatory referendum on any Brexit deal be offered to MPs as an option in any vote next week. Technical talks lasted four and a half hours, but both sides emerged cautious about how much progress had been made. After Thursday’s discussions in Downing Street, Corbyn sent a note to Labour MPs, saying: “Agenda items were customs arrangements, single market alignment including rights and protections, agencies and programmes, internal security, legal underpinning to any agreements and confirmatory vote.” – Guardian …as 25 Labour MPs tell Corbyn he must cut a Brexit deal with May or he’ll sell out voters… Jeremy Corbyn must cut a Brexit deal with Theresa May or he’ll sell out his own voters, 25 of his Labour MPs have told him. In a letter obtained by The Sun, the Labour boss was applauded for going into talks with the PM to try and thrash out a deal, but warned against going for another divisive referendum. Earlier this week the PM shocked Westminster when she revealed she wanted to work together with Mr Corbyn to get her Brexit agreement over the line. Furious Tories immediately lashed out and slammed her for turning to the Marxist leftie for help. But some of Mr Corbyn’s own MPs have been more supportive. The group, many of whom represent Leave-voting areas in the North, wrote: “We feel if compromise is necessary to achieve this deal and avoid fighting the European elections, we should go the extra step to secure this. Our policy, agreed by members, accepts that the public voted to leave the EU and seeks a deal that secures jobs and rights and work.” However, they risked re-opening the party splits over a second referendum once more, as they deemed that a confirmatory referendum on any deal was NOT necessary. Polling shows more support for No Deal than for Remain in every area outside of London, they said. – The Sun Labour MPs warn Corbyn over second public vote in Brexit deal talks – The Times (£) …and Tories tell Corbyn that May’s deal is a customs union in all but name… Senior ministers told their Labour counterparts yesterday that Theresa May’s Brexit deal with the European Union already includes a customs union “in all but name”. In a disclosure that will infuriate Tory backbenchers, a team of ministers led by Mrs May’s deputy, David Lidington, attempted to persuade Labour to back the deal because the small print already contains many of their demands. The claim was made during four and a half hours of talks yesterday between senior Tory and Labour ministers in an attempt to thrash out a joint approach to Brexit that could command a majority in the House of Commons. Publicly both sides described the meeting as “constructive” and said that further talks were likely today. In private there was greater pessimism. One source involved in the talks described them as a “waste of time” while another said Mrs May’s team had made “no big offer” that would come close to breaking the deadlock. – The Times (£) …and have reportedly discussed the possibility of a second referendum with Labour… Theresa May’s ministers have discussed the possibility of giving MPs a vote on a second referendum during talks aimed at agreeing a Brexit deal with Jeremy Corbyn, it has emerged. A team of four ministers led by David Lidington, the Cabinet Office minister, held four and a half hours of talks with their Labour counterparts on Thursday during which the idea of offering a second referendum was discussed as an option. Labour’s Keir Starmer is believed to have said that a second referendum had to be one of the options put to MPs in a series of so-called indicative votes which will take place next week if a cross-party deal cannot be agreed. Government sources played down the idea that such a plan had been agreed, as Downing Street rebuked Philip Hammond for suggesting that Parliament should have another chance to vote on a second referendum. Nigel Evans, executive secretary of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs, said: “Over the past two years Theresa May has taunted Jeremy Corbyn from the despatch box over the idea of a second referendum. If that became all of a sudden possible under these negotiations, the little bit of credibility she has left would be completely shattered.” – Telegraph (£) …but Brexit-backing Cabinet ministers are threatening to quit if May cuts a deal on a second referendum Brexit-backing Cabinet Ministers are threatening to quit if Theresa May backs a People’s Vote – after the Chancellor said it was a “credible” idea. The Sun can reveal furious Ministers discussed a ‘pact’ at a meeting of the ‘pizza club’ organised by Andrea Leadsom on Wednesday night. Sources claim at least three will go if the PM agrees to a confirmatory referendum after talks with Labour. One insider said: “People like Penny [Mordaunt] are furious over this.” It came as ex-Minister Andrew Percy told The Sun he would resign the Tory whip and ‘cross the floor’ if the PM goes back to the nation over Brexit. He added he was sure other backbenchers would quit the party – wiping out the Prime Minister’s working majority of six in the Commons. Mr Percy said: “No one has made it clear to me why Leave has to win twice but Remain only has to win once. If we backed a second referendum, I would not be able to take the Conservative whip.” – The Sun Ministers consider mass walkout in protest over soft Brexit as ‘death by a thousand cuts isn’t working’ – Telegraph (£) Conservatives face ‘obliteration’ at polls over May’s Brexit talks with Corbyn Grassroots Conservative activists are “quitting in their droves”, it has been claimed, as new polling shows that more than 90 per cent disagree with Theresa May’s decision to open talks with Jeremy Corbyn. Don Porter, a former head of the Tory party’s grassroots body National Conservative Convention, said Mrs May’s talks with the Labour leader were doing “lasting damage” to the Tory party. Mr Porter said volunteers, members and candidates were quitting, with real fears that he way has been cleared for Mr Corbyn to become Prime Minister. The news came as Tory MPs spoke out against the strategy. Johnny Mercer told The Specator magazine: “We’ll get top-sliced and bottom-sliced by those who don’t want any Brexit – and those who want a Ukip version of Brexit. We’ll just get left behind and Jeremy Corbyn will be prime minister.” Separately one minister told The Telegraph: “I had four local election candidates and activists emailing me saying: ‘I am going to walk away from our party’.” Another minister said they received messages from constituents saying: “I am never going to vote Conservative again”. – Telegraph (£) Eurosceptic peers tell Remain MPs they risk rise of ‘ insurrectionary forces’ if they ‘refuse’ to deliver Brexit Brexiteer Tory peers warned Remain-backing MPs they risked the possibility of a violent uprising by voters if they “refused” to accept the result of the 2016 EU referendum. Lord Lawson, the former chancellor, said there was a danger of a “very ugly situation” arising because “insurrectionary forces” could be left feeling “they cannot trust the British Parliament”. The Tory grandee was one of many senior figures to take aim at the House of Commons for rushing through a draft law which would force Theresa May to request a Brexit delay. The Bill, brought forward by Yvette Cooper and Sir Oliver Letwin, was agreed by MPs by just one vote on Wednesday evening and the legislation was presented to the House of Lords on Thursday. The architects of the Bill want it to become law by the start of next week but numerous peers appeared to try to delay its passage as they accused MPs of trying to “tear up the constitution” after seizing control of business in the Commons. Lord Lawson said: “This is a most appalling day. I have served in Parliament for 45 years and there has never been an instance of constitutional vandalism of the scale that we are witnessing today and we are witnessing at the present time more generally.” – Telegraph (£) Conservative Party Deputy Chairman Cleverly named junior Brexit minister James Cleverly, the deputy chairman of the ruling Conservative Party, has been appointed as a junior minister in the Brexit department, replacing a lawmaker who quit in protest at the government’s strategy. Cleverly will replace Chris Heaton-Harris who quit on Wednesday because he did not agree with the government’s decision to ask for an extension to Britain’s departure date from the European Union. Cleverly has been appointed as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Exiting the European Union. – Reuters We will do everything we can to avoid no-deal Brexit, says Angela Merkel Angela Merkel said she will do everything she can to prevent a no deal Brexit on Thursday before heaping pressure on Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn to break the deadlock in the House of Commons. “Where there’s a will there’s a way”, the German Chancellor said ahead of Wednesday’s crunch EU summit in Brussels, “We still hope, obviously, for an orderly Brexit. We do hope that the intensive discussions that are ongoing in London will lead to a situation by next Wednesday, when we have a special council meeting, where Prime Minister Theresa May will have something to table to us on the basis of which we can continue to talk.” Mrs Merkel was in Dublin after Brexit talks with Leo Varadkar, who admitted no deal would mean customs checks on goods and animals from Northern Ireland. Dublin has been under pressure to make plans from leaders such as Mrs Merkel and Emmanuel Macron for such checks to ensure EU standards are met and protect the “integrity of the single market”. But there is anxiety on the island of Ireland that the return of a hard border could lead to a resumption of violence. Earlier the two leaders heard from victims of the Troubles in a discussion with 15 people from Northern Ireland and the border area about the impact of no-deal. – Telegraph (£) UK must offer ‘credible and realistic way forward’ to justify new Brexit delay, says Irish PM – Guardian Angela Merkel hails MPs who voted to force the PM into asking for another Brexit delay as she meets with Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in Dublin – The Sun Labour retains Newport West as Brexit chaos ‘leads to slump in turnout’ Labour has retained Newport West in a by-election marred by low turnout and held against a background of Brexit chaos. The battle for the Commons seat saw turnout slump with Labour’s Ruth Jones taking 9,308 votes, giving her a majority of 1,951 over the Tories. Ukip’s Neil Hamilton took third place with 2,023 votes as the party saw support increase from its showing at the 2017 general election. The contest was triggered by the death of veteran MP Paul Flynn. Mrs Jones paid tribute to her predecessor in her victory speech, saying: “This by-election has taken place because of the sad passing of Paul Flynn, our friend. There have been many tributes to him over the weeks, but one saying stood out to me: ‘Everyone knew someone helped by Paul Flynn’. These words have been an inspiration to me during this campaign.” Mrs Jones added: “Who knows what the next few days, weeks and months will bring. But what I do know is that people have had enough after a decade of austerity.” – Telegraph (£) Labour holds Newport West with smaller majority – FT (£) Disgraced MP Fiona Onasanya backed bill to delay Brexit which passed by a majority of one Disgraced MP Fiona Onasanya voted in favour of the Cooper bill to delay Brexit, on Wednesday night, which passed its third reading by a majority of one. Brexiteers reacted in fury as the legislation was hurried through the Commons in one day. It passed by 313 votes to 312 minutes before midnight. Mark Francois said in the House: “The public won’t be impressed by this. Forgive them father for they know not what they do.” Ms Onasanya is currently sitting as an independent MP after being expelled from the Labour Party after being found guilty of lying about a speeding ticket. The 35-year-old was sentenced to three months’ jail in January for perverting the course of justice but was released after serving just 28 days. She is facing a recall petition which could result in a by-election in her constituency. Christopher Davies, the Tory MP who last month pleaded guilty to two charges of making a false expenses claim, voted against the bill. – Telegraph (£) John Longworth: Betrayed by establishment parties, Brexit voters long for a truly pro-Leave alternative We stand agog at the daily, in fact hourly, political machinations of the Prime Minister, Parliament and the establishment. We have witnessed the rewriting of constitutional precedent, a blatant disregard for manifesto commitments, the bending of rules and lies on an industrial scale. All this to keep the UK a prisoner of the EU system and a milch cow for Germany and Brussels bureaucracy. No heresy allowed in the new inquisition. What is astonishing is the apparent continued belief amongst our superior classes that “ordinary people” aren’t watching and understanding what is afoot. Perhaps the establishment elites don’t care. After all, they think the peasants in this new Peasants Revolt will go back to their ploughs and merely toil on once it is all settled with hardly a murmur. I think not. Pandora’s box is open and lid cannot be replaced, the Genie is out of the bottle. Recent opinion polls and my experience of people across the country supporting the Sunderland to London March To Leave tell me that there is widespread and deep disillusionment with our political system and with the application of democracy in our country. – John Longworth for the Telegraph (£) Ben Bradley: Working with Jeremy Corbyn on Brexit is a big mistake Just when you think the Brexit fiasco could not get any worse, the Prime Minister seems to find a way to surpass all of our expectations. It’s one thing to be forced by Parliament towards a customs union or second referendum, it’s quite another to collude with Jeremy Corbyn to deliver one. The Cooper Bill and proposals by the House in recent weeks have ripped up the rule book, taking control of the Business in the Commons and last night ramming through an entire Bill in one day. It’s almost unheard of, and has set a difficult precedent that, in the long term, could cause huge problems. It’s something that is being forced on the Government, and though we can argue about whose fault it is that we’ve got to this point, it’s not something the Prime Minister or the bulk of the Conservative Party were going along with willingly. We saw just how close those votes were yesterday, with one even being tied for the first time in more than 25 years. As the Bill scraped through by one vote, it was clear that it is Parliament, and not the Conservative Government, that is watering down Brexit. – Ben Bradley MP for CapX Tom Harris: Fiona Onasanya is a disgrace, but she’s just one of 313 MPs who voted to sabotage Brexit Most political geeks enjoy asking, “What if?” What if Margaret Thatcher had persuaded just two additional MPs to support her in the leadership election of November 1990? What if John Smith had lived until the 1997 general election? What if Florida had swung for Al Gore in 2000? Today there’s a new one for Brexit obsessives to consider: what if disgraced Labour MP Fiona Onasanya had served three months in prison for perverting the course of justice, instead of being released after four weeks? The answer is that Britain would, more than likely, be heading towards a no-deal Brexit next week. Onasanya, who was released from prison at the end of last month, was in parliament yesterday and duly voted for a new law brought by Yvette Cooper that will force the government to seek a long extension to Britain’s membership of the EU if no deal has been agreed. The measure was agreed by MPs by the narrowest possible margin: one. – Tom Harris for the Telegraph (£) Sherelle Jacobs: Brexiteers must now ‘go nuclear’ to force no-deal, or face political annihilation The dam has burst. Our Conservative Prime Minister has thrown herself at the feet of a reconstituted Marxist to save her dismal Withdrawal Agreement. The Tory grassroots are engulfed in a forest fire of fury, with many cutting up their membership cards in disgust. And irked voters like me are consoling themselves with impotent fantasies of scrawling “Brexit Betrayal” on their ballot cards at the early general election that now appears inevitable. The Conservatives have nine days left to save themselves from political annihilation. They still have time to oust the PM, and fulfill their promise to lead this country out of the EU by spring. The 14 Cabinet members who favour a no-deal exit must now “go nuclear”, resign en masse and try to install a caretaker Brexiteer successor in a last-ditch effort to rip the rug from under the PM. After all, she has snubbed them in favour of crushing down the little soft cartilage left in her slippery, spineless Brexit deal, to squeeze it through Parliament with the help of the hard-Left. The PM is now politically radioactive and if this cabinet continues to prop her up in this outrageously craven fashion, their careers will be forever contaminated. – Sherelle Jacobs for the Telegraph (£) Graham Gudgin: If the EU delivers No Deal after all, there will be little to fear – and much to gain Many like to claim that No Deal is off the table, but it remains the legal default position on April 12 – and the EU may not be bluffing in suggesting that it is now the most likely endgame. It has of course been decisively rejected in the Commons – but so has almost everything else. Decisive parliamentary rejection has hardly been a bar to reclaiming options from the dead. What is certainly true is that there has been little cool consideration of what no deal involves. The Cabinet Secretary’s letter to last Tuesday’s cabinet meeting claimed that No Deal would lead to recession and currency depreciation. One could almost hear the laughter in the aisles as the civil service once more tried its hand at economic prediction. Historians are likely to judge the demonisation of No Deal as one on the great triumphs of the Remain campaign. With impressive discipline, Remainers ubiquitously link the phrase No Deal to the adjectives ‘catastrophic’ or ‘disastrous’. In this, they have been greatly helped by the BBC and other media which invariably allow such descriptions to pass with no attempt to elicit any evidence. The idea that No Deal would greatly damage the UK economy started early with detailed studies by the Treasury and other economics groups during the EU referendum campaign of 2016. Their absurdly mistaken short-term forecasts damaged the department’s credibility, but the its equally flawed long-term impact estimates live on, and were cited recently by John McDonnell as the key evidence for Labour’s aversion to No Deal. Nor has the Bank of England been much better, with its estimates for No Deal jumping all over the place. – Graham Gudgin for ConservativeHome Alan Cochrane: No deal of any kind is what Nicola Sturgeon really wants Amid the plethora of confusing words that surround the Brexit farrago, perhaps the hardest task for voters has been to work out which description fits best what Nicola Sturgeon desires. As Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn spend a weekend wondering whether they can come up with the way through the morass, it’s time to spell out what Scotland’s First Minister wants. It can probably best be summed up thus: She says she is determined to avoid a No Deal exit from the EU; that would spell, she says, economic misery for Scotland. But her real aim is no deal at all … in other words no deal of any kind that takes Britain, including Scotland, out of the EU, because as far as she’s concerned No Deal is still a deal whereby we leave Europe. And while she goes through the motions of looking like a thoroughly reasonable leader seeking what’s best for Britain, it’s clear that what she really means is that the last thing she wants is a deal that is acceptable to a majority of MPs in the Commons, and thus helps the UK leave the EU in an orderly fashion. – Alan Cochrane for the Telegraph (£) Ross Clark: We’ll soon discover what a Corbyn Brexit really looks like – and the Tories won’t stomach it Is Jeremy Corbyn a “man you can do business with”, as Sir Oliver Letwin claimed this week? As talks continue between the Labour leader and Theresa May today, the widespread assumption is that they will agree on a customs union which can then be put to the House of Commons and be whipped by Conservatives and Labour alike. That would in itself be a pretty disastrous outcome, leaving Britain at the mercy of trade rules in which we have no say. It would be a humiliating position for the world’s fifth largest economy to find itself in. The EU would be absolutely guaranteed to go round the world negotiating trade deals which open UK markets to overseas competition while doing little to help UK exporters. But Corbyn’s demands are not going to end at a customs union. He is going to want, too, the political declaration to be tweaked in order to ensure that the more socialist elements of EU law – on workers’ rights, working hours etc – continue to apply in Britain after Brexit. Meanwhile, he will already be plotting how a future Labour government will take advantage of the freedom from the more economically-liberal elements of EU law – those which, for example, ensure competition and which strictly control the extent to which governments can bail out failing industries. – Ross Clark for the Telegraph (£) The Sun: We have sunk to a new low — the course of Brexit may have just been decided by a convicted criminal Not even the expenses scandal saw Parliament sink this low. A Bill to block Brexit — championed by Labour MP Yvette Cooper, who solemnly swore to her constituents she would never do such a thing — passes by a single vote. That vote belonging to jailed liar Fiona Onasanya, not long out of prison wearing an ankle tag and under a curfew. And so the course of Brexit and our nation’s history may have been decided by the whim of a convicted criminal who, in our view, has no right still to be an MP and is likely to be sacked in shame by voters within weeks. The Sun Says predicted just this on February 28. “Imagine if our country’s future came down to one MP’s vote,” we wrote. “Imagine if it belonged to an ex-con, freshly released from prison for dishonesty, still wearing an ankle tag in the Commons chamber. If Fiona Onasanya plays any influential role in Brexit votes, or any others, it will be the last straw for our democracy’s credibility.” But she did. And it is. – The Sun says Express: Britain is facing a soft Brexit or none at all Brexit talks between Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn yesterday produced no conclusion except a 39-word statement from Downing Street. We are told they were “constructive” and both sides showed “flexibility”. Sadly it seems the two leaders are inevitably moving towards a soft Brexit that would be a betrayal of the referendum. Mr Corbyn wants Britain trapped in a customs union unable to have the profitable free trade deals people voted for. The benefits of leaving are wiped out while, worse still, it could saddle us with free movement and uncontrolled immigration. Of more concern, it emerged last night that shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry has written to Labour MPs promising that Mr Corbyn will insist on a “confirmatory vote” in other words a second referendum – deal or remain. It is shocking Brexit secretary Stephen Barclay has admitted that is a possibility. The last thing this country needs is a second vote. No wonder there has been a huge backlash against the Prime Minister’s decision by Tory MPs and party members. – Express editorial Brexit in Brief Brexit has become so toxic, even the gentle House of Lords is raging – Michael Deacon for the Telegraph (£) If there’s no deal, there’s no Brexit – James Forsyth for The Spectator Parliament’s appalling handling of Brexit will do lasting damage to voters’ faith in democracy – Telegraph (£) letters Wednesday’s efforts by the Cooper-Letwin government – John Redwood’s Diary Corbyn could have the last laugh on May – Philip Collins for The Times (£) Philip Hammond’s support for another referendum might be about more than stopping Brexit – Telegraph (£)