Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team Theresa May urged to quit to help her deal pass… Theresa May could gain support for her Brexit deal if she promises to stand down as PM, senior Conservatives have told the BBC. MPs in the party have said they might reluctantly back the agreement if they know she will not be in charge of the next stage of negotiations with the EU. It comes as newspaper reports claim cabinet ministers are plotting a coup against her. No 10 has dismissed reports that Mrs May could be persuaded to stand aside. The prime minister has come under growing pressure to quit following a week in which she was forced to ask the EU for an extension to Article 50, and criticised for blaming the delay to Brexit on MPs. It remains unclear whether she will bring her withdrawal agreement back to the Commons for a third vote next week, after she wrote to MPs saying she would only do so if there was “sufficient support” for it. – BBC News Theresa May faces pressure to step down to save Brexit – MailOnline …while Number 10 makes frantic last-minute appeal to Jacob Rees-Mogg to help them persuade Tory rebels to back her deal… Jacob Rees- Mogg was last night billed as Theresa May’s ‘last chance’ of salvaging her Brexit deal. A senior Government source confessed that Downing Street was pinning all its hopes on the arch Brexiteer to persuade Tory rebels to back the Prime Minister’s deal in a third Commons vote this week. The source said: ‘Number 10 are now banking it all on Jacob. If he can persuade colleagues to back the deal, we may still – just – get over the line. ‘It’s the last throw of the dice.’ Mr Rees-Mogg, the powerful chairman of the Tories’ pro-Brexit European Research Group and an open supporter of Boris Johnson as a future leader, is seen as crucial to any hopes of getting the ex-Foreign Secretary to back the deal. He is also seen by Number 10 as ‘more reasonable’ than former Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab. Mr Rees-Mogg declined to comment last night, but the Somerset MP has emerged in recent weeks as a potential peace-maker between Downing Street and Tory Brexiteers who are refusing to back her deal. – Mail on Sunday …and pro-Remain MPs draw up plans to vote on revoking article 50 Pro-Remain MPs are drawing up plans for a vote on revoking article 50 as an emergency measure to stop Britain crashing out of the EU, after an online petition to cancel Brexit became the most popular ever. By Saturday night more than 4.6 million people had signed the petition on the parliament website, which states: “A People’s Vote may not happen – so vote now”. Public discussion about halting Brexit was considered politically toxic until just days ago. But that shifted last week as the prospect of crashing out drew closer and the number of petition signatures rose dramatically. A cross-party group of parliamentarians is now examining the possibility of cancelling the Brexit process, following concerns that Theresa May could end up backing Tory MPs who favour a no-deal departure if her own withdrawal agreement is rejected again. They are planning to table an amendment to Brexit legislation closer to the day of Britain’s scheduled departure from the EU. – Observer Cabinet plots coup to ditch May for an emergency Prime Minister… Theresa May was at the mercy of a full-blown cabinet coup last night as senior ministers moved to oust the prime minister and replace her with her deputy, David Lidington. In a frantic series of private telephone calls, senior ministers agreed the prime minister must announce she is standing down, warning that she has become a toxic and “erratic” figure whose judgment has “gone haywire”. As up to 1m people marched on the streets of London against Brexit yesterday, May’s fate was being decided elsewhere. The Sunday Times spoke to 11 cabinet ministers who confirmed that they wanted the prime minister to make way for someone else. The plotters plan to confront May at a cabinet meeting tomorrow and demand that she announces she is quitting. If she refuses, they will threaten mass resignations or publicly demand her head. Last night, the conspirators were locked in talks to try to reach a consensus deal on a new prime minister so there does not have to be a protracted leadership contest. At least six ministers are supportive of installing Lidington, the de facto deputy prime minister, as a caretaker in No 10 to deliver Brexit and then make way for a full leadership contest in the autumn. – Sunday Times (£) Cabinet ministers must ‘step up’ to oust Theresa May in order to rescue Brexit – Sunday Telegraph (£) Theresa May faces UK cabinet coup – FT(£) Theresa May is told she must go as ministers plot to install Michael Gove in No 10 to save Brexit – Mail on Sunday Theresa May faces coup as MPs finally lose patience – ‘I’m afraid it’s all over for PM!’ – Sunday Express …with Tory ‘hit squad’ lining up Philip Hammond and David Lidington to tell her to go… Tory big guns want Chancellor Philip Hammond and the PM’s deputy David Lidington to deliver their political death warrant to 10 Downing Street. The pair have been asked to carry out the cruel deed because most other ministers want to step into her shoes. But they may be beaten to the famous black door by a delegation of six backbench MPs who also want to tell the PM her time is up. A Cabinet source said: “Her position is fading fast. It’s pitiful to watch. “Somehow she just doesn’t seem to get the message that it’s all over. “So we’ve decided that somebody will have to tell her it’s in everyone’s best interests for her to step down.” Embattled Mrs May faces the most perilous week for all as she tries to get her deal through the Commons and stop MPs hijacking the process. Tearful government whips told her a few days ago that the only way to get it over the line was to promise she would go afterwards. A source revealed: “They weren’t the first people to give her advice to find it had fallen on deaf ears.” Up to eight Cabinet ministers are among those jostling to launch a leadership campaign the moment Mrs May decides to go. – The Sun …while grassroots Tories urge May to set a departure date, warning she is harming the party on the doorstep Grassroots Conservatives are urging Theresa May to set a date for her departure, warning that she is harming the party on the doorstep. With support for the Prime Minister among Tory MPs fading by the day, association chairman and presidents from across the country say the “overwhelming” feeling among their members is that she must now “consider her position”. Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph, a number of the chairs described Mrs May’s decision to delay Brexit beyond 29 March as a “fatal error”, which will have far-reaching repercussions for the party’s fortunes in May’s local elections. Others fear that a series of indicative votes, due to take place next week, will lead to a customs union being imposed upon her by MPs, with one warning that it would represent the “death knell of the Conservative Party”. Even defenders of Mrs May believe she cannot say on longer than six months, with one chair who described herself as a “great supporter” stating that she should step down within six months. It comes after a succession of senior Tory MPs, including some of the Government’s own whips, directly called on Mrs May to quit amid anger over the Brexit delay. – Sunday Telegraph (£) Boris Johnson ‘demands assurances from May that she will not lead the UK into a General Election’ Boris Johnson repeatedly asked the Prime Minister to her face to promise not to lead the party into a General Election. In their direct confrontation, the former Foreign Secretary is understood to have said: ‘Can you assure me, Prime Minister, that you will not lead the party into another Election?’ When Mrs May said that she had ‘already made clear’ that she would not be leader in 2022 – the planned date of the next Election – Mr Johnson said: ‘That doesn’t answer the question.’ The exchange came during a meeting to discuss Mrs May’s Brexit deal. Downing Street aides have discussed in recent weeks the idea of calling an Election if the deal is again voted down in the Commons, with the Prime Minister asking the electorate to back her. – Mail On Sunday Leaked document suggests Whitehall is already preparing for the possibility of rejoining the EU The Sunday Express learnt a recent contingency planning meeting between the Brexit Department and HMRC included rejoining the EU as a high possibility. A senior Government source admitted that all departments are now including the same contingency planning on EU membership. The source said: “In the end government departments have to consider all possibilities and there is a high chance that a future government may want to take us back into the EU. “Of course there is also contingency planning on what happens with the different options with Brexit including no deal and not leaving.” The preparations are in stark contrast to the lack of planning for a Leave vote ahead of the EU referendum in 2016. – Sunday Express Deputy Labour leader Tom Watson defies Jeremy Corbyn over backing a second EU referendum… Tom Watson said he would back the PM’s “rubbish deal” in exchange for a second public vote at a rally attended by a million people, it has been claimed. The party’s number two is at odds with his leader who won’t back Theresa May’s deal and is seeking a general election. Mr Watson said: “I can only vote for a deal if you let the people vote on it too. “Prime Minister, you’ve lost control of this process, you’re plunging the country into chaos, let the people take control.” He later tweeted: “The Prime Minister claims she speaks for Britain. “Well, have a look out of the window, Prime Minister. Open your curtains. Switch on your TV. Look at this great crowd today. Here are the people. “Theresa May: you don’t speak for us. #PutItToThePeople.” Two Labour backbenchers Peter Kyle and Phil Wilson also want backing for a confirmatory vote on the PM’s deal. MPs are likely to vote on the proposal if Mrs May allows a vote on her deal. – The Sun Tom Watson defies Jeremy Corbyn over second referendum as Macron issues fresh attack on Brexiteers – Independent …with Corbyn’s shadow cabinet as split as ever over Brexit Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet is set to clash again over Brexit this week, with supporters of a second referendum concerned that the Labour leadership will opt to facilitate a soft Brexit. With senior Labour figures openly calling for another public vote at the anti-Brexit march in London on Saturday, other influential MPs believe Corbyn’s inner circle is actually warming to a Norway-style Brexit that would see Britain leave the EU, but remain closely aligned to it. Tensions between Labour and its pro-Remain activists are already high after the party released a tweet on Friday evening asking if supporters had any “big weekend plans” and called on them to go out leafleting for May’s local elections. The party’s official position is to explore all possibilities to resolve the Brexit impasse, including a public vote if other avenues prove impossible. The position has allowed Labour to keep its options open amid widespread support for a second referendum among party members. However, a plan to hold a series of indicative Commons votes this week on possible Brexit options is set to force Labour to decide whether it can allow its MPs to back a soft Brexit. – Observer Dominic Grieve facing a move to deselect him next week for ‘wrecking Brexit’ Brexit wrecker Dominic Grieve will face a move to oust him as MP – on the day Britain should be leaving the EU. At least 100 angry Tory members are threatening to oppose a confidence vote at his local party’s AGM on Friday. The former attorney general has infuriated grass roots supporters over his attempts to frustrate the 2016 referendum result. He stirred up further anger by saying the Brexit row had made him feel ashamed to be a Conservative. If they give him the thumbs down, he could then face de-selection from his safe Beaconsfield seat which has a 24,543 majority. Theatre producer Jon Conway, who wants Mr Grieve removed, said: “It’s nothing to do with his extreme support for the EU, it’s because he has gone back on his word and been disloyal to the party and the PM. “He has told voters he would deliver Brexit and all he seems to have done is to try to stop it.” – The Sun Leo Varadkar says Brexit ‘will define the UK for the next generation’ Irish Prime Minister (Taoiseach) Leo Varadkar has said that Brexit will define the UK for the next generation. Mr Varadkar added that “it doesn’t have to define” the Republic of Ireland. The taoiseach told delegates at the Fine Gael conference in Wexford that “we live in extraordinary times”. “The last two and a half years, the last two and half months, even the last two and a half days have seen many twists and turns in the Brexit saga,” he said. “Throughout all of it, we have stayed firm. We have held our nerve and we have stayed the course.” Earlier on Saturday, the taoiseach said there were “rough and preliminary” plans in place to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland if there was a no deal Brexit. On Friday, Mr Varadkar said Brexit could be delayed for another year if British MPs decide they want the government to radically change its policy. – BBC News Remain-backing establishment ex-mandarins call for public inquiry into Brexit Calls for a public inquiry into Brexit are mounting among diplomats, business figures, peers and MPs, amid claims that the civil service is already planning for a future investigation into how it has been handled. The decision to call the referendum, the red lines drawn up by Theresa May and Britain’s negotiating strategy are all issues that senior figures would like to be examined. Bob Kerslake, the former head of the civil service, said an inquiry was needed into “the biggest humiliation since Suez, certainly since the IMF crisis [in 1976]”. The cross-party peer said he believed the civil service “is both expecting and preparing for this”. “We do need to understand how on earth we ended up where we have and it probably needs to go back to the decisions around holding a referendum and the way the question was framed,” he said. “It would need to be a public inquiry, probably judge-led.” Peter Ricketts, the former national security adviser and former head civil servant in the Foreign Office, cited the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war. “Chilcot took a long time, but it was cathartic,” he said. “The report was widely seen to have done the job and I think you can say the British system is better for it. I think the handling of Brexit has been such a failure of the process of government, with such wide ramifications, that there needs to be a searching public inquiry. – Observer Nigel Farage rallies troops as he rejoins Leave-supporting protest march… Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage has described Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit policy as “one of the saddest chapters in the history of our nation” as he re-joined Leave-supporting marchers heading for London. Mr Farage was speaking as he arrived at the start of the latest stage of the March to Leave, which began a week ago in Sunderland and is aiming to end up in London on the original Brexit day of March 29. He told the Press Association: “What has happened this week is not only a national humiliation but it is an outright betrayal because Mrs May now tells us we’re not leaving next Friday despite telling us over a hundred times that we would be, despite putting a piece of law in place supported by 500 MPs. “So there is something going on here that I believe to be one of the saddest chapters in the history of our nation and we will not take this lying down.” – MailOnline …while the People’s Vote campaign is accused of overestimating claims that more than one million people attended its London march The People’s Vote campaign has been accused of “overestimating” by Brexiteers after claiming one million people took part in a march through London in support of a second referendum. Thousands of demonstrators walked from Park Lane to Parliament Square on the ‘Put It To The People March’ holding placards which read ‘Brexit is Rubbish’, ‘Revoke Article 50’ and ‘We Love EU’. People’s Vote, the campaign group which organised the rally, said more than one million people took part and it was one of the biggest protests in British history. The group has previously been accused of trying to mislead politicians and voters about its level of support. A debriefing document prepared by the Greater London Authority put the number of attendees at October’s People’s Vote rally at 250,000 – significantly below the campaign group’s claim that they were joined by more than 700,000 people. – Sunday Telegraph (£) David Davis: If the Prime Minister doesn’t get her deal through next week, she must be prepared to leave without one There are times in politics when you do not want to be proven right. When I voted for the Prime Minister’s deal last week it was because it was the least worst of a series of bad options. That’s not much of a recommendation, but I took the view that if it failed to pass it would unleash a catastrophic series of events, from the House of Commons taking over the negotiations through to Brexit being delayed, and eventually stopped. Regrettably it looks as though I was right. Yet again the EU has treated our Prime Minister with humiliating disdain, and she returns to a House where many seem intent on stopping the whole Brexit project and defying the will of the British people. Reversing the referendum would be a democratic disaster. “Norway plus” would destroy every economic upside to Brexit, and the so-called “Common Market 2.0” would be much harder to negotiate than advocates think. The public will not be impressed when we fail to get back control of our borders, laws, money, and even our fish. The least risky option that delivers on Brexit is still the PM’s deal. Nevertheless, it seems all too likely that she will lose the vote again. So what then? I supported the Prime Minister’s deal after the Commons voted against no deal. But today the WTO exit looks much better than the other options in front of us. As the law stands we will leave the EU on March 29. Through two Acts of Parliament passed by significant majorities the House of Commons backed this state of affairs. So if Parliament rejects the deal on offer, the Prime Minister has it in her power to deliver a WTO outcome. That is what she should do. – David Davis MP for the Sunday Telegraph (£) Sir Graham Brady: It’s time to settle this Brexit mess and get out of the European Union with a deal As the Kinks put it, it’s a mixed-up, muddled-up, shook-up world. Something as simple as taking back control of our own country has been made to look impossibly complicated. Nation states around the globe make their own laws and trade successfully with or without free trade agreements. The UK itself has been more successful in recent years in growing its trade with markets outside the EU than with those that are inside the single market and customs union. It baffles me that so many British politicians have so little faith in Britain that they think we would be sunk if we had to stand on our own two feet. The mistakes that have brought us to this point are well known: agreeing to decide the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement before settling the future trading relationship with the EU; agreeing to a “backstop” to prevent a “hard border” in Ireland; allowing the militant Remainers in Parliament to damage Britain’s negotiating position by taking “No Deal” off the table and allowing our exit date to be deferred. If only we had accepted the EU’s offer two years ago to have a big Canada-Plus free trade agreement, we could have locked in certainty for business and spent the last two years trying to improve upon it! The question now is what’s the best way to achieve the proper Brexit that the British people voted for nearly three years ago? If we deliver on our promise to leave in the coming weeks, Britain will prosper. If we get stuck in the departure lounge, our country will suffer. For heaven’s sake, let’s settle this now. – Sir Graham Brady MP for The Sun Anne-Marie Trevelyan: The UK is strong enough to walk away from these failing EU negotiations. We now need a leader who believes in our country On the morning after the 2016 EU Referendum, David Cameron stood on the steps of No 10 Downing Street and said he was “proud of the fact that in these islands we trust the people for these big decisions.” 17.4 million people chose to leave the institutions of the European Union in the biggest act of democracy in our country’s history. “There can be no doubt about the result,” he continued, and “the will of the British people is an instruction that must be delivered.” Since then, our political class seems to have done all it can to try to renege on this instruction. Brexit is a unique opportunity to restore faith in our democracy and it creates magnificent opportunities for our nation. Voters wanted our country to make its own rules, to control its immigration policy, to choose how we invest taxpayers money at home and abroad, to end the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice and to ensure that we are not forbidden from doing trade deals with the fastest growing economies in the world. But the entire handling of the Brexit negotiations has been a national humiliation. – Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP for the Sunday Telegraph (£) No. 10 leak shows how May could delay Brexit without Parliament’s approval Ever since MPs first voted to trigger Article 50 everyone has been told that Britain, by law, will be leaving the EU on 29 March. And if that date was ever to change, then Parliament would have to vote for it to change. That’s the British constitution which can be summed up in eight words: ‘What the Queen-in-Parliament enacts is law.’ As the Supreme Court debacle reminded us, only Parliament can change laws that Parliament makes. So unless Parliament can approve a new Brexit plan, then we leave on Friday next week. Only this week it all got a bit complicated. After the Prime Minister sought an Article 50 extension in Brussels this week, EU leaders offered her two options: 1. For Article 50 to be extended until May 22 on the condition May passes her deal 2. For Article 50 to be extended only until 12 April if no deal is passed. This has led many Brexiteers to ask whether it is still possible to leave as originally planned next Friday. A former government aide accused No 10’s Director of Communications Robbie Gibb of telling hacks that the Government was not even planning on changing the UK legislation at all, and that apparently this would not be necessary as EU law takes precedence over UK law. Mr S has now been passed a leaked briefing note from inside Number 10 which suggests the government would be able to brush Parliament aside and delay Brexit by Prime Ministerial edict. It is a confidential briefing note, offering answers to questions. The document asks if Theresa May has the ability to extend the Brexit deadline unilaterally, or if she first has to seek parliament’s approval, noting that Speaker John Bercow has said that the agreement of the House is necessary for any extension. But the briefing concludes that since MPs voted for the government to seek an extension on 14 March, that now: ‘Making the request and agreeing it with the EU is a matter for the government.’ Under this interpretation, Theresa May could declare – contrary to what she has been saying for the last two years and what everyone (including the Speaker) understood to be the law – that she does not need to consult parliament if she wants to agree an extension with the EU. – Steerpike for The Spectator Sunday Times: Another fine mess made in Downing Street When Theresa May gave a televised address to the nation last Wednesday, she spoke a good deal of truth. The public have indeed “had enough”. They are, very definitely, “tired of the infighting, tired of the political games and the arcane procedural rows, tired of MPs talking about nothing else but Brexit, when you have real concerns about your children’s schools, our National Health Service, knife crime.” Indeed, Mrs May, portrayed herself as the plucky leader who is “on your side” against the combined forces of intransigent MPs, a vainglorious House of Commons Speaker who applies precedent when it most suits him, and crafty foreigners who refuse to bend the rules. But she left one key player out: herself. There is no doubt that her plan to seek an extension to the article 50 process based on a smaller Commons defeat for her withdrawal agreement was made more difficult, if not scuppered, by John Bercow’s intervention. Until the Speaker spoke, Downing Street appeared to be making progress with the Democratic Unionist Party and some of the European Research Group of Tory Brexiteer MPs, on the basis that her deal was as good as we were going to get and that the alternative would be a very long extension to the Brexit process. It may be that Tory forces now gathering against her will dislodge a prime minister who shows little willingness to budge. Even if they do, Britain faces tough choices. A new assessment by trade experts at Sussex University argues that a no-deal Brexit would be damaging. The “People’s Vote” marchers in London yesterday think they have momentum on their side and a long Brexit delay would play into their hands. Parliament may coalesce around a “Norway-plus” plan that remainers before the referendum found more objectionable than Brexiteers. There are plenty of people to blame for this mess we are in, but Mrs May must surely be at the top of the list. – Sunday Times (£) editorial Dominic Lawson: Common Market 2.0, aka Britain as an EU colony Theresa May and the British government agreed terms with the EU four months ago, both on a withdrawal agreement and on objectives for a future trade deal. The remaining mystery, which continues to exasperate the leaders of the EU 27, is: what does the Westminster parliament want? It has twice voted down the withdrawal agreement. All MPs have been able to decide is what they don’t like. Which is no sort of decision at all, when what is required is a treaty, rather than an ejection from some sort of political Big Brother house. So now MPs propose to find out what positive course of action they can agree on, if any, through a series of so-called indicative votes. According to the father of the house, Kenneth Clarke, the proposal most likely to gain a parliamentary majority is something its advocates idiotically call “Common Market 2.0”. This would have the UK remaining a member of the single market, and also fully tied into the EU’s customs union. Clarke’s view was backed up by Sir Oliver Letwin (David Cameron’s accident-prone fixer-in-chief): “We will probably . . . be able to get a cross-party majority in favour of what is sometimes called Norway-plus and sometimes Common Market 2.0.” In short, the scheme the House of Commons is apparently most likely to settle upon is not only more degrading and dangerous for this country than anything agreed by the government. To this “leave” voter it is also worse than EU membership. The good news is that the European Commission has no intention of negotiating directly with MPs rather than the executive. And I can’t believe any British government worthy of the name would agree to this country applying for colonial status. – Dominic Lawson for the Sunday Times (£) Jeremy Warner: Business has been left high and dry by the humiliation of our Brexit shambles After another week of twists and turns, we are no nearer knowing the outcome of the Brexit tragi-comedy than we were at the beginning. The Prime Minister’s hand might always have been a poor one, but it is hard to imagine it being played any worse, culminating in the humiliation of having to seek an extension to the process on terms dictated by Brussels. Stubborn, indecisive, unimaginative, and apparently impervious to advice, Theresa May’s defining characteristics could not have been less well suited to the task in hand. If she was chief executive of a company, she’d have been fired long ago. Yet somehow or other, she remains upright in the saddle, like the dead El Cid, strapped to her horse and sent into battle. Unlike Rodrigo, however, she is entirely unfeared or even respected. Only the prospect of the infighting that comes after keeps her in place. There is now almost no outcome that could be seen as positive for business – and that includes revoking article 50. Having come so far, to reverse now, even if sanctioned by a second referendum, would plunge the country into an even greater political crisis than we already have, if that is indeed possible, embedding national division, further undermining public faith in our political institutions, and very likely destroying the Conservative Party. The genie is out of the bottle; returning to the relative stability of the status quo ante is no longer a realistic possibility. – Jeremy Warner for the Sunday Telegraph (£) Liam Halligan: May’s deal is ghastly – now it’s the best hope The process of Brexiting, though, has been hijacked by a political and media class which, in large part, refuses to accept the referendum result. Presented with a binary question – Leave or Remain – the public gave an unavoidably binary answer, namely a decisive break. Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement is, of course, ghastly – as Economic Agenda has often argued. It leaves the UK “without voice, vote or veto” over EU law-making, and still subject to European Court of Justice jurisdiction. It means we hand over £39bn we don’t technically owe. This terrible “deal” is the result of May’s botched 2017 election and general lack of negotiating acumen. It reflects Labour’s cynical ambivalence, as the Opposition has tried to wreck the entire process and spark a general election. As it happens, the UK is now ready enough to make a decent fist of no deal – as a little-reported Bank of England study showed last week. Talk of planes not flying and customs not flowing is nonsense. Agreements are in place. While WTO rules would be bumpy, it’s doable. Yet, having watched Parliament closely, and seen the lengths Remainer MPs will stretch to scupper Brexit, I fear that no deal is now unobtainable. Yes, the default legal position was that we leave with no deal on March 29, soon to be April 12. Between now and then, though, I strongly suspect Parliament will conspire, using whatever procedural ruse it can, with the Speaker’s help if needed, to stop no deal happening. That’s why, for all its drawbacks, MPs who want Brexit to happen should take this final opportunity to back May’s deal. Voting down the Withdrawal Agreement could result in an even longer Article 50 extension, a bigger Brexit divorce bill or permanent membership of the EU’s protectionist customs union. May’s deal stinks – but it kills any chance of a second referendum and, crucially, puts us outside the EU’s political structures. Post-Brexit, UK-EU negotiations will become more technocratic and less symbolic, dropping the political temperature, allowing us all to move on from this tortuous impasse. – Liam Halligan for the Sunday Telegraph (£) Sunday Telegraph: Britain is slipping into a constitutional crisis. The Cabinet must act Do we still have a functioning government? Do we still have a working Cabinet? Does something resembling a normal executive still run Britain? Or is the country on autopilot with civil servants in charge and utter chaos in Westminster? Next week, MPs will try to take over Brexit with the complicity of No 10, confirming that the usual power structures have broken down. This cannot continue for much longer. It’s not just that the agenda is about to be seized by various Remainer factions in Parliament, none of which are coherent and none of which will be able to legislate in any meaningful sense; the fundamental problem is that we are slipping into a constitutional vacuum. Parliament is not a government. A loose coalition of MPs – many of whom intend to defy their 2017 manifesto – does not have the legitimacy of a political party that stood on an explicit platform, or the ability to negotiate directly with the EU. Unfortunately, they have been encouraged to rebel by Speaker John Bercow, who appears to have some ludicrous ambition to become Parliament’s chairman of the board. Mr Bercow has shamelessly interpreted precedent to his liking and been blatantly partisan. As Brexit shifts from a party political crisis to an all-out constitutional one, it will partly be because of this man’s ego. Responsibility for running the country truly lies with Conservative MPs and Conservative ministers. They are paid plenty for the work – and many enjoy the perks of privy council membership, even a chauffeur driven car. It’s time for them to earn their money. The leadership of the 1922 committee, senior MPs and the Cabinet must sit down together and negotiate a way out of this mess. We need a functioning executive again. We need Cabinet to exercise collective responsibility with the Prime Minister as first among equals. We need a whipping system that works and is respected: MPs who no longer wish to be part of it must consider their position. – Sunday Telegraph (£) editorial Tony Parsons: MPs are set to betray the biggest vote ever… how the hell can there not be some kind of backlash? When future historians look back at how the British establishment finally betrayed the people over Brexit, a special scorn will be reserved for the leader of the Labour Party. Jeremy Corbyn is famously happy to cuddle up to the terrorists of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Provisional IRA, but this week he drew the line at talking to a South London MP who recently quit the Labour Party. Corbyn has proudly laid wreaths for dead terrorists and gladly licked the boots of men of violence but he refused to breathe the same air as Labour defector Chuka Umunna of the recently formed Independent Group. On Wednesday night the Prime Minister held a meeting with opposition leaders in a final desperate bid to find some cross-party consensus about a way forward for our divided and humiliated country. This was the week when politicians needed to put aside their petty grievances, in the national interest. This was last orders in the last-chance saloon. Because everything feels like it is on the line now. Not simply Brexit but faith in our democracy, belief in our elected representatives and a sense that our votes are worth a damn. It was the right time for the leaders to check their egos at the door and work together for the sake of the country we love. – Tony Parsons for The Sun The Sun on Sunday: After this Brexit mess, Britain will be stuck for some time with a lame-duck Prime Minister Despite her best intentions and a dogged determination to see Brexit through, the chances of her deal ever getting Commons support are pitiably low. Some senior ministers put the likelihood of it passing next week at 5 per cent. The PM has seen her own authority seep away and is now unable to unify her own Cabinet, let alone the party in general. That means she is powerless even to call an election. As the 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady points out, her deal may be threadbare but it still offers the only realistic chance of Brexit actually taking place. Backing it would give Britain a chance of a new start. If the deal fails again it seems Philip Hammond and David Lidington will be knocking on the PM’s door to tell her the time has come to make an exit. But in the midst of this paralysing crisis even that is not an easy option. There is no clear route to appointing a successor in the short term. And with the party at loggerheads even a swift transition to a caretaker PM is perilous. After this week’s turmoil we face being stuck for some time with a lame-duck Prime Minister, whoever it may be. Britain needs a miracle to avoid it. – The Sun on Sunday says The Spectator: The Tories have squandered Brexit – they must not waste the extension too For many people, next Friday was supposed to be a celebration. Boris Johnson spoke about an ‘independence day’ marking the beginning of a new era of national self-confidence. But as we approach 29 March, not even ardent Brexiteers can claim that there is anything to celebrate. Theresa May has been reduced to asking, or rather begging, the EU for an extension to Article 50 — something that the EU has said it will grant only if Britain can provide a good reason for needing the extra time. So far, the Prime Minister has not provided one, apart from the prolonging of every-one’s agony. When parliament voted to enact Article 50 two years ago, the challenge seemed daunting but perfectly possible. The government had a clear strategy: to negotiate a free trade deal with the EU while leaving the single market and customs union. If it wasn’t possible to agree a good deal with the EU, we would leave without one, but well prepared for what followed. Instead, with only a week to go until the date on which we were supposed to leave, no one is any the wiser as to how events will play out. After a reckless gamble on an early election, May lost her majority, then lost her nerve. Calamitously, she agreed to the EU’s sequencing of talks: that we would discuss a trade deal only after we’d agreed how much money we would hand over and what we would do about the Irish border. Then she lost control over her government, allowing those opposed to Brexit to make sure there was no proper no-deal plan. This all led to the shameful mess before us now. If the government is to have extra time to negotiate a deal, or to prepare for a no-deal exit, it is imperative that it starts with an idea of what it wants to achieve by leaving the EU. What kind of economy does it see emerging in a newly independent Britain? How does it want the country to diverge from the EU? Almost three years after the vote, the Tories have no coherent answers to these questions. While a great many people had a hand in the Brexit mess, the principal blame lies with the Tories. They cannot, now, fix the Brexit mess but the question is whether the Conservative party can fix itself. If it has any instinct for survival, then it should not wait for too much longer to provide an answer. – The Spectator editorial Robert Peston: MPs have one shot this week to prevent a no-deal Brexit As you know, I have been banging on about the probability that the UK will leave the EU without a deal on 12 April. Having talked to very senior members of the government, and also well-placed sources in the EU, it has become clear to me that MPs have one shot to prevent that – and it will almost certainly be this week that MPs will either rise to the challenge or flunk it. How so? Well, the prime minister and the EU will be looking at the indicative votes that are due to take place on Tuesday and Wednesday – on Tuesday sponsored by the PM, on Wednesday under the backbench initiative of Sir Oliver Letwin – to see if a majority of MPs can demonstrate their support for a deliverable alternative to a no-deal Brexit. If they don’t, Theresa May’s conclusion may well be full steam ahead to a no-deal Brexit, I am told – which will be music to the ears of perhaps a third of the Cabinet and Tory Party. Before I flesh this out, here is a small sidebar: I would expect at least a couple of ministers to resign in the next 24 hours, to vote for Letwin’s motion on Monday that would secure his day of indicative votes on Wednesday. Given the way that the tectonic plates of politics are shifting and colliding, ministerial resignations represent no more than a modest earth tremor. The bigger earthquake is all about how and whether we leave the EU. – Robert Peston for The Spectator Brexit in Brief The reason we’re in such a mess over Brexit is because of Theresa May: it’s time for her to go – Daniel Hannan for the Sunday Telegraph (£) Theresa May’s continuation in power is untenable both at home and in Europe – Janet Daley for the Sunday Telegraph (£) Cheer up everyone, the British economy powers on despite Brexit – Tim Newark for the Sunday Express Commons Speaker ‘is using Brexit to boost Brand Bercow before he quits’ – Mail on Sunday