Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team Theresa May considers next step to break Brexit deadlock… The prime minister is continuing to consider her next move to break the Brexit deadlock following the latest defeat of her withdrawal plan. Senior government sources say the “ambition” is still to get Theresa May’s deal through the Commons. But MPs will again vote on alternatives on Monday, with a customs union with the EU thought to be MPs’ most likely preferred option. Some senior Brexiteers have warned Mrs May against pursuing such a move. The prime minister has until 12 April to seek a longer extension to avoid the UK leaving without a deal. Mrs May said the UK would need “an alternative way forward” after her plan was defeated by 58 votes on Friday, following earlier defeats by 230 and 149 votes. The government has so far failed to win over 34 Conservative rebels, including both Remainers and Brexiteers, who say Mrs May’s deal still leaves the UK too closely aligned to Europe. Northern Ireland’s DUP – which has propped up the minority Tory government – also continues to oppose the deal. But a No 10 source indicated the prime minister would continue to seek support in the Commons and insisted efforts were “going in the right direction”. BBC political correspondent Alex Forsyth described the cabinet as “deeply divided” over what steps to take next. – BBC News …but her Cabinet is now ‘close to collapse’ Theresa May will be warned today that her government faces total collapse unless she passes her Brexit deal — as the prime minister’s aides were at loggerheads over whether to accept a soft Brexit or call a general election this week. In an emergency conference call last night Brexiteer cabinet ministers agreed they would resign if May accepted a customs union or got Tory MPs to vote for the UK to take part in European elections in May. They will deliver their threat when the prime minister consults her cabinet today. More than half her Commons party, 170 MPs and ministers, have signed a letter telling May to pursue a no-deal departure from the EU rather than accept a soft Brexit. It also demands that the UK leave the EU by May 22. But May will face resignations from at least six cabinet ministers on the party’s remain wing if she backs no-deal. In a leaked email, the immigration minister Caroline Nokes, who attends cabinet, told a constituent May’s “deal is dead” and said she would prefer “no Brexit rather than crashing out”. Last night an opinion poll put Labour on 41%, up 5 points, with the Conservatives down 7 points at 36%, which would translate into Jeremy Corbyn being 19 seats short of a majority. – Sunday Times (£) Accepting ‘softer’ Brexit plan would ‘break’ the Conservative Party, Tory MPs warn May Accepting a softer Brexit plan would “break” the Conservative Party, Tory MPs have warned Theresa May. The Prime Minister will face intense pressure in the coming days to dilute her negotiating red lines and accept a post-Brexit customs union with the EU as the potential price of delivering an orderly divorce from the bloc. But Mrs May has been told she will risk a damaging Tory split and accusations of overseeing “another complete betrayal” if she bows to demands for the UK to be closer to the EU than under her current plan. Tim Loughton, a former children’s minister, said Tory MPs could never support being in a customs union with the EU “because of page 36 of the Conservative Party manifesto”. “It said we would not be part of the customs union and it would stop us being able to strike our own trade deals,” he said. “It is a non-starter.” – Sunday Telegraph (£) Brexit blow as Britain could be forced to stay under EU rule permanently Britain could be forced to stay under EU rule permanently if the final part of a “Remainer trap” passes through Parliament on Monday. Ministers believe the Government will be unable to stop Parliament forcing the UK to stay in a customs union in a move which will strip away the benefits of Brexit and force a long delay to departure. It comes as at least 170 Tory MPs – two thirds of the parliamentary party – have signed a letter telling Theresa May she has to take Britain out of the European Union within weeks even if it means leaving with no deal. The letter, authored by Brexit minister Chris Heaton-Harris, has been signed by at least 10 cabinet ministers and comes as fed-up Conservative MPs have indicated they are prepared to bring down her Government if she does not deliver Brexit. Despite this latest blow to her authority, Mrs May has let it be known that she will refuse to go through with a pledge to quit unless she gets her deal through Parliament on a possible fourth attempt next week. In what could be a red letter day in Parliament tomorrow, former Tory minister Oliver Letwin, a leading Remainer, is set to bring forward so-called indicative votes again allowing MPs to try to find a preferred option. Mr Letwin is set to be aided by Speaker John Bercow who has faced fierce criticism for abandoning his neutrality and consistently trying to allow Parliament’s Remainer majority to thwart Brexit. A senior cabinet source told the Sunday Express: “We are not sure yet but there is a chance that these votes could be legally binding. – Sunday Express PM hints at general election to break Brexit deadlock… Friday 29 March was meant to be Brexit Day and pro-Leave supporters descended on parliament in their thousands to voice their frustration that their “independence day” has been delayed. As the prime minister herself said at the dispatch after her defeat: “The House has been clear it will not permit to leaving without a deal, so we have to find a way forward.” Describing the implications of the decision to vote her down as “grave”, the prime minister went on to say “we are reaching the limits of this process on this House”. Everyone read one thing only into that remark; the prime minister could be paving the way for a general election to break the impasse. Less than an hour after Mrs May was defeated, her party chairman Brandon Lewis tweeted a new social media post – “Labour just voted to stop Brexit” – which looked very much like a general election slogan. The Conservatives are deeply opposed to a second referendum or a “confirmatory vote” on Mrs May’s deal, but the routes out of the Brexit impasse are narrowing. – Sky News …but a snap election under her leadership would ‘annihilate’ the party, senior Tories warn Theresa May must not be allowed to lead the Conservatives into a snap election, senior Tories have warned. A series of ministers and MPs have told The Telegraph the party would be “annihilated” at the polls if the Prime Minister insisted on fighting a campaign to face down Parliament over Brexit in the coming months. The warning came as it emerged that senior ministers have virtually given up any hope of the Democratic Unionist Party, which is propping up the Government, supporting Mrs May’s Brexit deal. Its MPs’ refusal to budge means she faces a growing likelihood that Parliament will legislate this week to force her into seeking a soft Brexit, if backbenchers can agree on a specific plan. Separately, current and former ministers were rapidly stepping up preparations for a leadership contest after Mrs May pledged to stand down after Brexit. – Sunday Telegraph (£) Furious Tory MPs tell May: we’ll block snap Brexit election – Observer Senior Tories warn May against snap election to solve impasse amid fears party could be wiped out – Independent Conservatives are caught up in all-out civil war over Theresa May’s ‘kamikaze’ election plan amid fears public vote could wipe out the Tories – Mail on Sunday Jeremy Corbyn could be poised for Downing Street if May calls an election after shock poll reveals Labour have taken a five-point lead over Tories – Mail on Sunday Labour edge closer to power as shock poll shows clear five-point lead – Sunday Express ‘One Nation’ Tories form group to counter pro-Brexit leadership candidates Dozens of moderate Tories, including senior cabinet ministers, have signed up to a powerful new party group in an attempt to stop the Conservatives lurching further to the right during the race to replace Theresa May. Work and pensions secretary Amber Rudd, already a key figure in the search for May’s successor, is one of the leaders of the newly formed One Nation Group, said to comprise 40 MPs desperate to find a candidate committed to blocking a no-deal Brexit. The move comes as MPs, including some in government, warn that they believe entryism by pro-Brexit supporters at local Conservative associations risks delivering a leader willing to back a hard break with the EU. And it follows an outcry after Dominic Grieve, the pro-Remain former attorney general, lost a confidence vote held by his local party. Boris Johnson, Dominic Raab and Michael Gove – who all campaigned to leave the EU – are among the four frontrunners. The fourth is foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt, who campaigned for Remain in the referendum but has since backed taking a hard line in EU negotiations. “We’re trying to learn the lessons of last time, where our wing was not organised and did not have enough say,” said one insider. “This time we want to have influence to ensure we act as a caucus that can back someone who supports our kind of agenda.” – Observer Businesses warned to step up preparations for a Jeremy Corbyn government Businesses are being warned to step up preparations for a government led by Jeremy Corbyn, amid the growing threat of a general election. The trade body representing investment firms has told members that the prospects of a Labour prime minister are growing, with the two main parties “neck and neck” in the polls. The Investment Association said the industry needed to “step up” attempts to influence Mr Corbyn’s policies, citing his plans to nationalise rail and utility firms and impose a new levy on financial transactions. In a private briefing to members, which include JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley’s investment arms, it warned of “infrequent ‘meaningful engagement’ with industry from the very top of the party” and an “inbuilt scepticism of the City”. The disclosure comes as John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, separately announces plans to use the Royal Bank of Scotland, which is 62 per cent owned by the Government, to hand out loans to small and medium-sized companies from a new £250 billion national investment fund. – Sunday Telegraph (£) Furious Tories turn on ERG in Brexit crisis as rival factions trade insults over Britain’s failure to leave the EU on 29th March Furious Tories turned on each other last night as tempers frayed over the Brexit deadlock. Rival factions traded insults over who was to blame for failing to take Britain out of the EU on time. Many pointed the finger at 28 hardline members of the European Research Group who sided with Remainers to block Theresa May’s departure deal. One senior Brexiteer said: “They have lost the plot. They are no longer behaving rationally. Their passion for a perfect Brexit has now turned into a kamikaze mission and they are in danger of killing off the whole project — and the Conservative Party with it.” But ERG zealots hit back at their accusers, branding them “traitors” and “cowards”. The blue-on-blue warfare erupted yesterday on what should have been Britain’s first day outside the EU. The PM’s deal was sunk hours before the two-year deadline expired, triggering a wave of bitter recriminations. Senior Brexiteers — including Jacob Rees-Mogg, David Davis, Iain Duncan Smith and Dominic Raab — swung behind the deal as it dawned it was better than losing Brexit altogether. – The Sun Brexiteers blast Labour MPs for refusing to back PM’s deal despite representing Leave constituencies Brexiteers have vented their fury at the “M62 gang” who are refusing to back Theresa May’s deal. Angry Tory MPs blasted their Labour colleagues for failing to fall in behind the PM despite their constituencies voting to leave. The M62 is the motorway is a 107-mile stretch across northern England connecting Liverpool to Hull. Senior Tories have been pointing fingers at Labour MPs such as Helen Jones of Warrington North where 58 per cent voted to leave. Other seats on the route are Barbara Keeley’s Worsley and Eccles South where 59 per cent backed leave and Paula Sherriff’s Dewsbury where 57 per cent voted to leave. The Labour MPs whose constituencies sit on the route have failed to back the deal – despite giving MPs three chances to back it. One Tory MP this week said: “There are countless Labour MPs along that motorway stretch from Warrington over to Yorkshire. “They are standing in the way of this deal going through when their own constituents voted to leave the EU.” Only five Labour MPs backed Theresa May’s deal on Friday which would have guaranteed the UK leaving the EU on May 22. There were 234 Labour MPs who voted against. – The Sun Minister pins DUP’s Brexit deal rejection on Boris Johnson Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab have been blamed by a senior cabinet minister for the decision by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) not to back Theresa May’s EU withdrawal agreement at the third time of asking. The DUP’s support was seen as critical as it could have led to enough members of Jacob Rees-Mogg’s European Research Group (ERG) switching their vote on Friday to enable May’s deal to be passed. A cabinet minister sought to blame Johnson and Raab after both had met senior members of the DUP in recent weeks. The May ally said: “The DUP interviewed Boris and Raab and decided they were not really unionists. That’s why they withheld their support for the deal.” Another source said the Unionists were spooked when Johnson failed to assure them that he would strive to maintain regulatory alignment between Britain and Northern Ireland after Brexit. The blame game comes after Nigel Dodds, the DUP deputy leader, stunned Westminster by opening the door to a softer Brexit moments after the prime minister’s defeat. – Sunday Times (£) Grieve accuses ex-Ukip opponent of insurgency after confidence vote loss Dominic Grieve has blamed a former Ukip opponent for orchestrating an insurgency of his local association which has plunged his future into doubt after he lost a confidence vote. The remain-supporting Tory MP is facing deselection from his party after the Conservative association in his Beaconsfield constituency said it no longer had confidence in him at a “rowdy” meeting on Friday. But the former attorney general, who lost the confidence vote by 182 to 131, has hit back against the defeat by rounding on his former Ukip foe for the coup. Jon Conway, who received just 1,609 votes compared with Grieve’s 36,559 when he stood against him in 2017, denied the accusation. The former regional organiser for Vote Leave said he was the only ex-Ukip activist who had joined the association. Grieve, who has been MP for the constituency since 1997, told Sky News: “At the meeting there were a very large number of people who had turned up … around 100 of whom I had certainly never seen or met before in my years as a member of parliament. “And there is clear evidence that there was an orchestrated campaign by my Ukip opponent in 2017, who has since joined the association, with the express intention of trying to come along and defeating the motion. “And they were successful in doing that. It was a slightly rowdy meeting, although the chair was able to keep it under reasonable control. – Observer EU would delay Brexit again to let UK hold a second referendum EU leaders are prepared to let Britain delay Brexit again to allow time for a second referendum, The Independent understands. After parliament rejected Theresa May’s deal for a third time, the bloc called a summit on 10 April – two days before the UK is on course to leave without a deal. And senior Brussels officials familiar with leaders’ thinking say that barring a credible plan to get a majority for the withdrawal agreement, the UK would be given more time only if it was for another clear option such as a general election or a referendum. The EU has already warned that a further extension, which could run until at least the end of the year, would also require the UK to take part in European parliament elections scheduled for the end of May. As reported by The Independent, the prime minister is considering a general election as a way out of the Brexit chaos in Westminster, where MPs have rejected all options – including a no-deal Brexit. Senior officials in Brussels have made clear that an extension would also be justified if it was to make time for a referendum. – Independent EU braces itself for a wrecking-ball Brexit as it blames ‘political meltdown’ in London EU governments have crossed a psychological threshold and are preparing for a disorderly Brexit. They are testing how to handle British requests for market access in the event of a no-deal — an outcome once viewed as a far-fetched nightmare. But what used to be “a possibility” is seen by some EU diplomats as the most probable outcome of the Brexit debacle. “A no-deal scenario on April 12 is now a likely scenario,” a European Commission spokesman said. “The EU is fully prepared for a no-deal scenario at midnight on April 12.” Several senior EU envoys gave even more pessimistic assessments in private, citing Britain’s parliamentary confusion as evidence the UK was likely to tumble out of the bloc. “It’s an accelerating political meltdown in London,” said one. The strategy for handling the scenario was discussed at a meeting of envoys on Thursday and revealed in a diplomatic note seen by The Sunday Times. – Sunday Times (£) Varadkar to hold talks with Merkel and Macron as reality sets in that no deal Brexit leads to ‘backstop 2.0’ It has been a feature of the Brexit process that the British side has often been so consumed with its own internal political wrangling that often it seems barely to notice what is happening on the other side of the Channel. This week Westminster again will be ablaze with Tory party leadership plots and factional in-fighting over competing flavours of Brexit, but at the same time the European side will continue to get its ducks in a row for whatever comes next. The crux of that conversation is how to manage the Irish border in the event of a ‘no deal’, which is why Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron will this week hold face-to-face meetings with the Irish Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar. Mr Varadkar will travel to Paris for talks with the French president on Tuesday, while on Thursday the German chancellor will make her first visit to Ireland since 2014. Anyone in the UK who assumes that a ‘no deal’ Brexit is now off the table, should ask themselves why Europe’s two most powerful leaders are both making time in their schedules for Mr Varadkar in the same week. Europe has no appetite for a ‘no deal’, but equally has fast-diminishing confidence that a moribund British political system will be able to prevent it happening. – Sunday Telegraph (£) Mervyn King calls for no-deal Brexit after six months of preparation A former governor of the Bank of England has said that Britain should leave the European Union without a deal. Mervyn King, now Lord King of Lothbury, dismissed the “wild, exaggerated” warnings of politicians who argue that a no-deal Brexit would damage the economy and rejected the idea that it would trigger nationwide job losses. “My own personal preference would be to go back to Europe and say we have a clear strategy, which is we want to leave without a deal but we’d like to take six months to complete the preparations to avoid the dislocation,” he told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. There would be “short-run dislocation costs” if the UK left without a deal, Lord King said, but he added that predictions about the effect of Brexit on the economy had been proved to be wrong. “I don’t believe that with adequate preparation, or in the long term, that the economic cost of leaving would be very different from staying in the European Union,” he said, adding that it was matters of “politics and identity” that motivated voters above economics. The Bank has said that all forms of Brexit would produce slower economic growth than staying in the EU and that a disorderly departure with no deal could cause more damage than the global financial crisis of 2008. Lord King, 71, who was governor during the crisis and retired in 2013 after ten years at the helm, has been critical of the Bank’s decision to provide such projections. – Sunday Times (£) David Davis: History will favour those who do right by the will of the people on Brexit — and condemn those who try to usurp it The Prime Minister’s Withdrawal Agreement has been voted down three times. It’s had more comebacks than Frank Sinatra. Even now we are told that it is not dead yet. There is speculation there may well be a showdown next week between the PM’s deal and an insistence that the UK remains in the customs union. I’ve made my position clear. The PM’s deal was a bad deal. It left the UK under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. It threatened the integrity of the United Kingdom through the Northern Ireland backstop. And it effectively meant the UK handed over £39billion of taxpayers’ money with nothing in return. Despite this I voted for it twice but with great reluctance as the alternative is so much worse. If unreconciled Remainers in Parliament are allowed to hijack negotiations, we will get Brexit in name only, or no Brexit at all. It’s a terrible state of affairs and I wish the Government had had the courage to maintain the possibility of a No Deal exit. It would have given leverage to our negotiating position and delivered a better deal. Frankly what we face now is a crisis of democracy. Record numbers of Britons voted in their droves to leave the EU. Subsequently both the main parties and others, too, promised at the 2017 General Election that we would leave on time and exit the single market and customs union. Now that is threatened. Those who wish to thwart Brexit have captured Parliament and will exert a terrible price by forcing the UK to remain in the customs union in complete contradiction of their election manifestos. Now we have the opportunity to move on and reset our position. First, we must face down those who will not accept the result of the referendum, the naysayers and the nihilists. We will not let them steal Brexit and sabotage democracy. Then we must return to the EU and state clearly and boldly that one way or another we will leave. – David Davis MP for The Sun Steve Baker: Theresa May’s deal was a Brexit betrayal – but our country and our institutions can arise renewed On Thursday evening, I decided to support the Prime Minister’s Brexit deal. By the grace of God, I changed my mind with the help of friends. Now I see how my noble and brave colleague Richard Drax feels about backing this awful deal. He said in a television interview, “I personally feel utterly ashamed of myself for betraying everything I believed in, that this deal was a rotten deal.” I could not be more proud of my Parliamentary colleague, both for the way he was willing to put his name to a proposition for the sake of the stability of the government and for the astonishing courage he has shown in revealing how he feels about it afterwards. A gun was put to all our heads. Members of Parliament have been deliberately and systematically bullied by the British state towards a deal which is widely understood to be a betrayal of the fundamental principle of the referendum: a deal which converts a clear instruction to take back control into a surrender of our capacity for self-government with no voice, no vote and no escape. Events today are no longer about Europe or the European Union. By failing to accept a lawful democratic instruction, by constructing an exit deal which is a prison in which to await our defeated return to “The Project”, officialdom has made this a question of who governs and by what authority. It is now of little consequence whether you voted Leave or Remain, Conservative or Labour, Liberal Democrat or Green. Does your vote count? The spite, pride, mendacity and pitiless commitment to trampling democracy with which we are governed today leads me to describe the situation without hesitation as wrong: deeply, profoundly, intolerably wrong. The entire nation, and especially Members of Parliament, have a duty to defeat this constitutionally in the division lobbies and at the ballot box with an unyielding resolve, a restrained wrath and a ruthless commitment to the principles of a free and open society. I hope everyone will stand with us so that from this descent, our country and our institutions can arise renewed, without fear of falling into the same fate for generations. – Steve Baker MP for the Sunday Telegraph (£) Suella Braverman: Theresa May risks survival of the Conservatives by siding with Remainers Trust. Such a simple word yet difficult to define. Can the British people trust their politicians? In fact, do we deserve their trust? That question is being tested as we find ourselves in the middle of a constitutional crisis and political failure. As a Leave-supporting MP, I resigned my ministerial job over the final terms of the Withdrawal Agreement in November. I then voted against it for the third time on Friday. I have received a hero’s welcome from those grateful for “not letting us down”. I have also had the finger of blame pointed and have been branded an “extremist” and “hardliner”. Champion and villain in equal measure. Neither, in reality, are true. The position in which my Leave-supporting colleagues and I have found ourselves has been difficult. As the valiant minority in a Remain-dominated Parliament, sidelined by the pro-Remain Government and Civil Service, we have always known that the uphill struggle was worth it for the sake of the 17.4 million majority. We resoundingly rejected the Withdrawal Agreement in January because it did not offer Brexit. The Prime Minister must now see that this deal is a dead one and instead elevate her leadership by staying true to her manifesto assurance that “no deal is better than a bad deal”. She must not let people down by accepting the customs union proposed by those who don’t want to leave. The prodigious economic benefits of Brexit would be inexcusably squandered. She can decide to support the anti-Brexit Parliament, risking the survival of the Conservative Party, or take the side of the British people who now just want to leave the EU on April 12. Her choice is clear: shatter what little trust remains with the British people or prove that she, and the Conservative Party, are worthy of it. – Suella Braverman MP for the Sunday Telegraph (£) Liam Halligan: MPs must pass May’s deal, for all its faults Now Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement has been rejected by the House of Commons again, a so-called soft Brexit looms. After this week’s “indicative votes”, the UK could yet stay in the European Union’s single market and customs union – outcomes we’re constantly told are “less damaging” to the UK economy. I’ve never bought that – and now, with perhaps just one more chance for MPs finally to deliver on the June 2016 referendum, passing the withdrawal deal and then negotiating a clean break, it’s worth reiterating why. For the analysis of our politicians rarely gets beyond slogans. The single market and customs union are unequivocally “good for the economy”, we’re told – a conclusion those trying to block Brexit use to portray Leavers as thick, or ideologically deranged. The customs union, meanwhile, “helps low income families”. Really? That, at best, is highly debatable. I’d say it’s rot. Yes, I know the EU “is now taking the prospect of no deal very seriously”. I hear the same parroted TV reports from Brussels. And, of course, president Macron says he’ll “block the UK’s extension” – making no deal seem more likely. But, ahead of April 12, Parliament will block no deal, with primary legislation if necessary. That is the ghastly truth. And Macron won’t block the extension. Why would he – when he wants the UK, and our £10bn-a-year contribution and rising, to stay in? His words, and Brussels “preparations”, are a ploy to gull Brexiteer hold-outs into thinking no deal could still happen – so they keep voting down the Withdrawal Agreement that gets Brexit over the line. My second observation is aimed at Labour MPs keen to “protect our economy”. Until recently, when Remain forces gained political advantage, sterling would rise. Now, after May’s agreement failed again, and Remainers rejoiced, the pound plunged. For investors understand why craven anti-Brexit MPs are too blind to see – that a long delay to the UK’s withdrawal, and the related uncertainty and disorder, would be terrible for UK investment and jobs. Pass May’s agreement, though, for all its faults, and unlock a wall of pent-up investment and enterprise, as the fog of uncertainty lifts. – Liam Halligan for the Sunday Telegraph (£) Nigel Farage: Why I’m battling for Brexit once again After the referendum, I retired from active party politics, saying I wanted my life back. And I’ve had a great deal of fun since. Better still, I no longer have to resolve arguments between association chairmen and branch secretaries over how to fold the napkins at their work Christmas dinners and so on. But I’ve watched in dismay as Ukip, the machine that won the last European elections and scared the legacy parties into offering the British people a referendum, has descended into a bunker of its own making. By focusing on radical Islam, it has restricted its ability to get the votes needed to keep Westminster honest. So, with some reluctance, I’m strapping on the breastplate again and am going to lead the Brexit party. It is very odd, though, to be involved in a party whose sole desire is not to exist. If Westminster took instructions from the people of this country, rather than those around the Rond-Point Schuman in Brussels, we wouldn’t need to reform. Since we launched, we’ve had a huge range of impressive people getting in touch: Greens, Labour, Tories — all wanting a free, democratic UK. We don’t want to fight another battle, but if we have to, we’ve got the heart, we’ve got the people and we’ll have the money too. And this time, it’s no more Mr Nice Guy. – Nigel Farage MEP for The Spectator Robert Tombs: The only way to save Brexit now is a general election Britain no longer has a functioning government, parliament or constitution. Are we even a democracy operating under the rule of law? Arguably, the Government’s agreement with the EU to delay Brexit was illegal in advance of parliamentary votes. Parliament, unrepresentative of the country, contemplates pulling down fundamental pillars of the constitution. Cabinet responsibility, one of the oldest principles of representative government, is flouted. MPs seem set on acting as an oligarchy, based on a misunderstood and now archaic idea of absolute parliamentary sovereignty, dating back to the days before universal suffrage consecrated the sovereignty of the people. The most alarming aspect of the Brexit issue is the damage being done to our whole political system. The first rule of democracy, that a legal majority decision must be carried out, is assailed both inside and outside parliament. MPs are clearly desperate to avoid fighting European elections. This reflects their wish to avoid a general election. Yet a general election is the only way our constitution provides for hauling us from the quagmire. It alone can resolve the divergence between parliament and the electorate. In any previous crisis of similar magnitude, a general election would already have been called. – Robert Tombs for the Sunday Telegraph (£) Dominic Lawson: A Canute strategy to turn the Brexit tide The strain of negotiating Brexit within a hung parliament has all but shattered cabinet unity, the necessary (but not sufficient) condition of a functioning British government. Yet on the most existential matter, cabinet ministers are completely united. Not a single one of them is anything other than horrified by the thought of going into (another) snap general election under the leadership of Theresa May. It’s necessary to say this because a general election is increasingly being promoted as the only way for the government to gain a mandate for its Brexit withdrawal agreement, rejected three times by the House of Commons. And in her statement to MPs after the last of those rebuffs, May hinted as much. But it is not just that the cabinet ministers, to a man and a woman, regard the prime minister as — to use George Osborne’s cruel observation after her 2017 election debacle — a dead woman walking. For the Conservative Party to go back to the voters without having managed to take the country out of the EU, after three years of trying and failing, would (under any leader) be to invite derision from the electorate. So here’s my suggestion to May. Agree to adopt Corbyn’s demand. Say you will try to persuade the European Commission to incorporate the idea of a customs union in which a non-member of the EU would have a meaningful say and a vote. It is obvious what the response would be from Brussels. But then she would have demonstrated, by scientific experiment, the (deliberate) impossibility of Labour’s demand. You might call it the Queen Canute strategy. And this exercise could be carried out quickly — before the deadline of April 12, the new date on which the UK will leave the EU in the absence of an extension to article 50. – Dominic Lawson for the Sunday Times (£) Sun on Sunday: Short-sighted MPs blocking Theresa May’s Brexit deal could scupper EU talks and lose everything Blinkered Brexit hardliners are in danger of losing everything they have fought for. The very real prospect of a humiliating fourth defeat for Theresa May’s deal in the Commons this week will have devastating consequences. The likely outcome is that the Prime Minister will have to crawl back to Brussels to beg for an extension that could last years — spurring on the Brexit blockers. But the likes of Priti Patel, Owen Paterson, Sir Bernard Jenkin and Suella Braverman seem hell-bent on scuppering her deal whatever the risks. Fellow heavyweight Brexiteers such as Boris Johnson, Iain Duncan Smith and Dominic Raab have weighed up the options and concluded that a flawed Brexit is better than no Brexit. But this hardcore of headbangers is prepared to play Russian roulette with the future of the country rather than ditch their precious ideological purity. They and their equally unbending colleagues in the European Research Group must now swing behind Mrs May and push her deal over the line. This week we have already seen a grassroots uprising among local Tory party members who want to axe their rebellious MPs. – The Sun on Sunday says Express: Joy that turned to anger over big Brexit betrayal Many thousands of people filled Parliament Square this week. They wanted to be there to celebrate Britain’s freedom from the EU but instead they had to express their anger at the failure of this country’s political class to enact their wishes. While there were an estimated 20,000 protesters outside Parliament, their dignified fury was shared by the 17.4 million people who voted to Leave. Time and again politicians promised us during the referendum that this was a once-in-a-lifetime vote and that the result would be respected. Then 108 times Prime Minister Theresa May pledged that Britain would be leaving on March 29 at 11pm. We often talk about an 11th-hour decision. Well, that came and went yesterday when MPs for the third time failed to back Mrs May’s deal that would have delivered Brexit. There are many who try to blame the Brexiteer MPs in the European Research Group (ERG) but yesterday their leaders Jacob Rees-Mogg, Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab held their noses and voted for the deal and for Brexit. Among the 34 Tory MPs to oppose were a good number of hardline Remainers such as the sanctimonious Dominic Grieve who in many ways embodies the conceit of this Remainer Parliament and its disdain for the British people. In the end it is MPs such as Grieve using their Remainer majority, combined with pure opportunism from Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour, which has brought us to this desperate situation. If, as the Government suggests, there is one last chance for this deal then MPs must take it. If not, we have to leave on April 12 with no deal and defy the ludicrous Project Fear predictions of the establishment. The idea of a customs union or some other soft Brexit solution or, worse, a lengthy delay that keeps us under Brussels rule is unacceptable. Parliament had one job – deliver Brexit. Now in these final days it must take us out of the EU. – Sunday Express editorial Brexit in Brief As the Brexit betrayal reaches its climax, the elite’s disdain for us Leavers is now disgracefully clear – Janet Daley for the Sunday Telegraph (£)