Sign up here to receive the daily news briefing in your inbox every morning with exclusive insight from the BrexitCentral team Theresa May insists she ‘had no choice but to approach Labour’ over delivering Brexit… Prime Minister Theresa May has insisted she had to reach out to Labour in a bid to deliver Brexit or risk letting it “slip through our fingers”. In a statement on Saturday night, Mrs May said there was a “stark choice” of either leaving the European Union with a deal or not leaving at all. Some Conservatives have criticised her for seeking Labour’s help after MPs rejected her Brexit plan three times. Three days of talks between the parties ended without agreement on Friday. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said he was “waiting to see the red lines move” and had not “noticed any great change in the government’s position”. He is coming under pressure from his MPs to demand a referendum on any deal he reaches with the government, with 80 signing a letter saying a public vote should be the “bottom line” in the negotiations. In her statement, Mrs May said that after doing “everything in my power” to persuade her party – and its backers in Northern Ireland’s DUP – to approve the deal she agreed with the EU last year, she “had to take a new approach”. “We have no choice but to reach out across the House of Commons,” the PM said, insisting the two main parties agreed on the need to protect jobs and end free movement. The referendum was not fought along party lines and people I speak to on the doorstep tell me they expect their politicians to work together when the national interest demands it.” Getting a majority of MPs to back a Brexit deal was the only way for the UK to leave the EU, Mrs May said. “The longer this takes, the greater the risk of the UK never leaving at all.” – BBC News Theresa May warns of no Brexit unless deal is agreed with Labour – Sky News May says cross-party talks now only way to deliver Brexit despite lack of progress in Tory-Labour negotiations – Independent …as she bids to save her deal with a ‘Boris-proof’ Brexit Theresa May is preparing to offer Jeremy Corbyn a legally binding soft Brexit deal with a “Boris lock” that would make it difficult for a future Eurosceptic prime minister to tear up after she leaves No 10. In a last-ditch attempt to leave the EU this year, May’s team is drawing up plans to enshrine in law a guarantee that MPs would have the ultimate say on a final deal with Brussels. Senior figures in Downing Street will tell Tory MPs that they face a “stark choice” — accept a rebranded customs union with Brussels or “lose Brexit”. Cross-party talks stalled on Friday after Labour complained that May was not prepared to rewrite the political declaration with Brussels, which maps out what Britain wants from the second phase of negotiations. Under the new plan, the prime minister would offer to rewrite the government’s withdrawal bill to enshrine a customs arrangement in law. That is designed to satisfy Labour fears that any deal reached with May would be ripped up by her successor. The “Boris lock” would mean a Eurosceptic leader taking over would have to overturn primary legislation to get a hard Brexit. – Sunday Times (£) Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn’s plot to thwart Boris Johnson from delivering clean Brexit – The Sun Prime Minister poised to bind Britain into the customs union as the price for securing Labour’s support on her deal – Mail on Sunday Government has ‘no red lines’ in talks with Labour, admits Philip Hammond Chancellor Philip Hammond has said the government has “no red lines” as they hold crunch Brexit talks with Labour. Speaking at a meeting of finance ministers in Romania, Mr Hammond said there may be an “exchange” of text with Labour on Saturday, adding that “we are holding every possibility open”. He said: “We should be open to listen to suggestions that others have made. “Some people in the Labour Party are making other suggestions to us, of course we have to be prepared to discuss them. “Our approach to these discussions with Labour is that we have no red lines, we will go into these talks with an open mind and discuss everything with them in a constructive fashion. – Sky News Hammond ‘optimistic’ over Brexit talks with Labour – BBC News Philip Hammond deepens Tory civil war after claiming there are ‘no red lines’ in Brexit negotiations with Labour – Sunday Telegraph (£) Hammond says no red lines in May-Corbyn Brexit talks – FT(£) UK faces staying in the EU for five more years if May signs up to a long Brexit delay Britain faces being stuck in the EU for up to another five years if Theresa May signs up to a long Brexit delay this week. Brussels chiefs plan to “reset” all dates in the PM’s deal so they kick into force once the extended membership comes to an end. That would mean the transition period – during which the UK will be bound by EU laws – will stretch until the end of 2023. It would mean Britain would still be under outside rule more than eight years after voting to leave in a referendum. European Council chief Donald Tusk has proposed a lengthy Article 50 extension which would end on March 31 next year. An EU source told The Sun on Sunday: “There’s an awareness now that if this extension were to be accepted then we move the entire Withdrawal Agreement. “That means the clock is reset and the transition period would start from next March.” The transition is designed to run for an initial period of 21 months, with an option to extend it by a further two years if required. It is meant as a standstill period during which the UK and EU can negotiate a future trade deal. An extension would also reset the bloc’s no deal plans meaning some that have been designed specifically for 2019, like on fishing, will need rewriting. A senior EU official said: “These regulations would enter into force at the first day when the Treaties cease to apply to the UK. “If there were to be an extension we’d have to use that period to contemplate on how to take this particular issue forward.” – The Sun Furious Tory MPs will bid to oust the PM if UK fights European elections… Theresa May is being warned by her mutinous MPs that they will move to oust her within weeks if the UK is forced to take part in European elections next month and extend its EU membership beyond the end of June. Tory MPs are increasingly angry at the prospect of voters being asked to go to the polls to elect MEPs three years after the Brexit referendum, in an election they fear will be boycotted by many Conservatives and be a gift to the far right and Nigel Farage’s new Brexit party. Senior Tories said one silver lining of a long extension would be that it would allow them to move quickly to force May out, and hold a leadership election starting as soon as this month. Conservative MP Nigel Evans, an executive member of the 1922 committee of backbenchers said last night that, if May failed to deliver Brexit and all she could do was secure a long extension at an EU summit on Wednesday, she would face overwhelming pressure to step down. “At the moment there is focus on delivering Brexit, but if a long delay becomes a reality I believe the noises off about removing the prime minister will become a cacophony,” he said. “I and many other Conservatives would prefer leaving the EU on World Trade Organisation terms to any humiliating long extension that forces us to take part in the European elections.” Nigel Adams, a former minister who quit last week over May’s decision to hold talks on Brexit with Jeremy Corbyn, said: “Over 170 Conservative MPs including cabinet ministers signed a letter to the PM last week urging her to ensure the UK does not take part in the European elections. Doing so will not end well.” – Observer ….while furious Tory activists go on strike and donations dry up as May woos Jeremy Corbyn Conservative activists are refusing to campaign for the party and donations have “dried up” because members feel that Theresa May has betrayed them over Brexit and the Government has “completely lost touch with voters”, council candidates have warned. In a letter to the Prime Minister, more than 100 current and would-be Tory councillors state that they are unable to muster the volunteers needed to effectively fight next month’s local elections because “belief in the party they joined is gone”. The stark warning came as Mrs May was forced to insist that she would maintain her pledge to take back control of the UK’s borders after Brexit, after Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, said the Government had “no red lines” in its talks with Jeremy Corbyn over a potential compromise Brexit deal. Tory activists reacted with fury after Mrs May signalled last week that she could agree a deal involving remaining in a customs union with the EU – a move explicitly ruled out in her 2017 manifesto and which she has repeatedly insisted she could not countenance. – Sunday Telegraph (£) Tories on course to lose control of councils across country as UKIP ‘returns from the dead’ in Brexit backlash The Conservatives are on course to lose control of councils across the country next month, Theresa May has been warned, as Ukip returns from the “dead” on the back of mounting anger over delay to Brexit. Council leaders have told The Sunday Telegraph they are preparing for heavy losses in the local elections, amid fears voters are turning on the party for failing to take the UK out of the European Union on time. They warn that Tory councils in Leave-voting heartlands, including Peterborough and Southend-on-Sea, will be fighting for “survival” and could see their majorities wiped out in May. Their concerns have been echoed by education minister Nadhim Zahawi, who warned Mrs May on Saturday she would be signing the “suicide note” of the Conservative Party if the UK went ahead with European elections in May. Mr Zahawi said further delay posed an “existential threat” to the party and would result in a “seismic” political shift, with voters abandoning the centre ground for the hard-left and far-right. “If we do not deliver Brexit we would be unleashing forces that I think could get this country, and indeed the rest of Europe, into a very bad place,” he added. – Sunday Telegraph (£) Theresa May told Tories face ‘existential threat’ if EU delays Brexit and makes Britain hold European elections – The Sun Tory MP says joining in EU elections would be ‘existential threat’ to party – Observer May signs Tory ‘suicide note’ allowing Ukip to return from ‘dead’ amid public Brexit fury – Sunday Express May can ‘kiss goodbye’ to Brexit if she strikes deal with Marxist Corbyn, says Dominic Raab Theresa May has been warned by former Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab that striking a deal with Jeremy Corbyn risks “handing the keys to Downing street” to a Marxist which will destroy the future of Brexit. Mr Raab, who has been pitted to succeed Mrs May as Prime Minister, described her “desperate” negotiations with the Labour leader as a “major mistake – bad for Brexit, bad for the Tory Party and potentially disastrous for the nation”. He warned: “Mr Corbyn, remember, has no serious interest in securing an effective Brexit. Throughout the whole process, he has zig-zagged like a drunk stumbling home from a Communist Party knees-up. “If the PM bends to Mr Corbyn’s whims now, we can kiss goodbye to the opportunities Brexit offers us.” Mr Raab’s scathing intervention appeared in the Mail on Sunday amid growing tensions in the Tory party over the cross-party talks. – Sunday Express Labour chairman attacks Corbyn over prospect of ‘People’s Vote’… Jeremy Corbyn was warned by Labour party chairman Ian Lavery that he risked going down in history as the leader who split his party if he backed another referendum on Brexit, in an extraordinary outburst during a meeting of the shadow cabinet last week, according to senior party sources. The Observer has been told that Lavery, who has twice defied the whip and abstained on votes on another referendum, delivered the broadside at Corbyn during a shadow cabinet meeting on Wednesday evening, at which Corbyn updated his frontbench team on talks with the government aimed at ending the Brexit impasse. According to senior figures, Lavery spoke out at the end of the meeting saying he knew his comments would be leaked but was determined to make his point. “He was very angry and wagged his finger at Jeremy, telling him that if he backed a referendum he would go down in history as the Labour leader who split the party,” said one shadow cabinet member. “Jeremy just sat there.” – Observer …while 80 MPs write to Corbyn calling for ‘People’s Vote’ guarantee Eighty Labour MPs have called on Jeremy Corbyn to secure a guarantee of a second referendum in any Brexit deal he reaches with Theresa May. The group, which includes shadow ministers, wrote to the Labour leader on Saturday and stated that a public vote should be the “bottom line” in the negotiations. The letter warns any concessions secured in the cross-party talks – which have so far failed to produce a breakthrough – cannot be guaranteed, meaning a referendum is a necessary safeguard. It said: “Theresa May has been clear that the legally binding part of the Brexit deal, the Withdrawal Agreement, cannot be renegotiated. “This means that the only concessions Labour could obtain will be non-binding assurances about the future relationship. Any future Tory prime minister could simply rip up these ‘guarantees’ after Theresa May leaves office, and it is the stated aim of the vast majority of Tory MPs to do precisely this. “The only way to guarantee jobs, rights and protections – and Labour’s reputation with its membership and the electorate – is to support a confirmatory public vote on any option which is agreed by Parliament, which will put additional pressure on the Government to hold the early general election the country needs.” The letter was organised by the Love Socialism Hate Brexit campaign and signatories include shadow treasury ministers Clive Lewis and Anneliese Dodds, shadow minister for disabled people Marsha de Cordova and shadow science minister Chi Onwurah. – Evening Standard Angela Merkel throws May a lifeline over UK’s Brexit departure date Angela Merkel is open to backing Theresa May’s request for a short Brexit extension as the German chancellor seeks to maintain the pressure on British MPs to support the withdrawal agreement, according to senior EU sources. In the face of moves from elsewhere in the EU to insist on a longer delay to Britain’s departure, Merkel is keeping all options on the table ahead of this week’s EU summit and is said to be willing to back 30 June as an exit date. She is thought to be concerned that Donald Tusk’s proposal of a year-long extension, with an option to exit earlier on ratification of the withdrawal agreement, could be self-defeating. The thinking in Berlin will be a boon to the prime minister, who on Friday proposed the 30 June extension, with the promise that the UK would hold European elections if it had not ratified the withdrawal agreement by 22 May. Tusk, as president of the European council, suggested on the same day that his “flextension” would put the onus on the British government to decide its own fate while freeing Brussels from repeatedly revisiting the issue. – Observer Any EU country that vetoes Article 50 delay ‘wouldn’t be forgiven’, says Irish premier Leo Varadkar Any country that vetoes a delay to Brexit at next week’s European Council meeting “wouldn’t be forgiven”, Irish premier Leo Varadkar has said. The taoiseach said he thought it was “extremely unlikely” that any EU member state would seek to block an extension to the Article 50 period. The European Council will hold an emergency meeting next Wednesday to discuss the UK’s request to delay Brexit until 30 June. Donald Tusk, the council president, is expected to instead propose a delay of one year with the option of the UK leaving the EU earlier if parliament ratifies a withdrawal agreement. Any extension will need to be approved by all 27 other EU member states. Mr Varadkar said Ireland wanted a longer extension than is being proposed by the UK government. He admitted that some EU countries were frustrated at the UK’s failure to ratify a Brexit deal but said he had asked other states to show “patience and solidarity”. He told RTE: “Today we have got that and I think that will continue.” The taoiseach also said it was unlikely that the UK will leave the EU without a deal on 12 April – the date it is currently due to exit the bloc. – Independent Any EU country that uses veto against Brexit extension ‘wouldn’t be forgiven’ warns Varadkar – Belfast Telegraph Attempt to secure delayed departure from EU could leave UK on course for no-deal Brexit, senior lawyer warns An attempt by Parliament to direct Theresa May’s attempts to secure a delayed departure from the EU could in fact leave the UK on course for a no-deal exit, a senior lawyer has suggested. Lord Pannick, a leading QC, said provisions in a bill drawn up by Sir Oliver Letwin and Yvette Cooper could “damage” attempts to reduce the chances of the UK leaving the EU without a withdrawal agreement. The barrister, together with Lord Judge, the former Lord Chief Justice, are planning to table an amendment to the legislation on Monday, which would restore powers for Mrs May to negotiate a new exit date with EU leaders on Wednesday if they reject the June 30 cut-off that she has proposed. The legislation passed by the Commons last week would legally require Theresa May to ask the EU for a Brexit delay up until a date that MPs could specify. On Friday, the Prime Minister wrote to Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, seeking an extension of the UK’s membership until June 30, or May 22 if Parliament could agree a deal before then – a plan likely to be ratified by Parliament if the bill becomes law tomorrow evening or Tuesday. But Lord Pannick warned that the bill, which its backers see as an “insurance policy” against Mrs May changing the plan, would prevent the Prime Minister from accepting any counter offer that EU leaders may make at an emergency meeting of the European Council on Wednesday. – Sunday Telegraph (£) Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s fury at BBC ‘scaremongering’ over Brexit drugs shortages Health Secretary and Tory leadership contender Matt Hancock has launched a blistering assault on the BBC, accusing them of Brexit scaremongering. In an eviscerating letter to Newsnight bosses, the Department for Health claimed a report warning of shortages of epilepsy drugs was ‘inaccurate in parts and misleading in others’. The Corporation’s flagship current affairs show aired a story last Wednesday claiming that some life-saving drugs are impossible to stockpile and there was therefore a risk they would run out if the UK’s borders are blocked during a disorderly EU exit. Mr Hancock is understood to be infuriated by the allegation, and his department’s letter branded it ‘inaccurate reporting which could needlessly cause substantial worry to anyone reliant on epilepsy medication’. Health chiefs insist that they are ready for a potential No Deal exit, with detailed plans to fly in critical medical supplies should there be disruption to traditional supply chains. – Mail on Sunday Revoke Article 50 if you can’t agree a deal, manufacturers tell May Manufacturers are calling on Theresa May to revoke article 50 if she cannot strike a Brexit agreement this week, in the latest sign that the looming possibility of Britain leaving the EU without a deal is hammering confidence in the sector. Make UK, the lobby group that represents 20,000 manufacturing firms, last night wrote to May and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn saying it is “critical for the future of UK manufacturing businesses and their workforces that we bring the current uncertainty to an end”. The letter from Make UK chief executive Stephen Phipson, seen by The Sunday Times, comes after two-thirds of the group’s members backed revocation of article 50 if May does not reach a deal by the April 12 deadline. Phipson wrote: “The majority of our members have told us, in no uncertain terms, that the current situation of short-term extensions and prolonged ambiguity cannot continue. Should a parliamentary majority not be achieved this week, or agreement not achieved with the EU at the emergency council meeting, we cannot continue to take damaging short-term decisions or risk a no-deal departure. In this scenario, Make UK is calling for the government to revoke article 50.” The letter comes after May wrote to the EU requesting a Brexit extension until June 30. Make UK, along with the CBI and other business groups, has consistently lobbied the government to avoid a no-deal Brexit, but has not previously made such a direct intervention in the political process. – Sunday Times (£) Nigel Farage returns: ‘Our Brexit Party candidates will be household names from all walks of life’ A new pro-Brexit party is lining up prominent businessmen and academics to stand in European Parliament elections, Nigel Farage has revealed. With the Tories and Labour now scrambling to select candidates in time for the poll on May 23, the former UKIP leader has confirmed that his new ‘Brexit Party’ will be competing for all 73 seats. Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph last night, the former UKIP leader said candidates would be drawn from “all walks of life” and a number would be household figures. Mr Farage added that the party was selecting representatives from “all areas of the country” and that many of them would hail from non-political backgrounds. “We will have a full slate of candidates featuring people from all walks of life, including business and academia, and all areas of the country,” he continued. “Many have never been party political before and some of them will have instant name recognition.” – Sunday Telegraph (£) James Cleverly: There is no such thing as a perfect exit — Brexit 1.0 can be evolved, adapted and improved I was delighted to be appointed as a Department for Exiting the European Union minister this week because I am a Brexiteer and I want to see Brexit delivered. It’s as simple as that. For me, Brexit has always been an opportunity to be grasped. A chance to stand on our own two feet; friends and partners with our EU neighbours, but not bound to them. That is why I am a strong supporter of the Government’s deal. Negotiated over two years, the deal allows us to deliver on things I campaigned on in the referendum. It allows us to take back control of our borders and our laws, stop sending those vast sums of money to the EU, and to make our own trade deals across the world. I’m an optimist, but I’m also a realist. We need to face up to the maths. That deal has not got the backing of enough MPs. Parliament has rejected the deal three times, and it doesn’t look like we’re about to see the Commons change its mind. The other reality is that Parliament has made clear that it won’t accept a no-deal Brexit. So we face a simple, binary choice; leaving with a deal, or don’t leave at all. No Brexit. I know which I prefer. The Government has always been clear that failing to deliver Brexit would be a betrayal of the people who turned out to vote in the 2016 referendum — who marked their ballot papers thinking, quite rightly, that whichever side won would see what they voted for delivered. So to get Brexit delivered and to respect the referendum result we needed to change approach. I’m not happy that it has come to this, but this is where we are. – Newly-appointed Brexit Minister James Cleverly MP for The Sun Andrea Leadsom: We must end this parliamentary stand-off, because we’re running out of time to save Brexit We are nearly three years on from the referendum and we still haven’t left the EU. To Leave voters, it is unjust. To Leave and Remain voters alike, it feels interminable. The country needs to move on and find a way to come back together. David Cameron’s government, at the time of the referendum, made clear it would be a once-in-a-lifetime decision. It cost millions of pounds to hold, has saturated public discourse, and it feels like we’ve been stuck there ever since. Parliament has so far shown itself unable to honour the result – something I sincerely regret. Not only has our planned exit date been and gone, but there is now a real risk that we might not leave at all. The Cooper-Letwin legislation set in train by some backbenchers, against all parliamentary conventions, feels like an unstoppable attempt to kick Brexit into the long grass. It’s time to confront the grim truth; the vision we had of Brexit is fading away – and we are running out of time to save it. Seeing March 29 come and go has made it imperative that we urgently resolve this. We need to prove to the world that we are capable of delivering on the wishes of our voters. The ultimate betrayal would be a second referendum. It would require lengthy delay, it would reignite the divisive debate, and since Parliament has so far failed to follow the first result, there is no reason to believe it would honour a second referendum either. – Andrea Leadsom MP for the Sunday Telegraph (£) Jo Platt: Labour MPs must listen to voters and honour the referendum result “Democracy in this country is dead. I will not be voting in any election be it local or national again”. This is an increasingly common sentiment in my constituency mailbag. Whilst many dismiss this as blind anger and frustration, when I return to my constituency each week, the community that I proudly live and raise my children in, it is increasingly apparent that the trust, respect and confidence that constituents have in our politics and especially in us as politicians is rapidly dissolving. This is not just from those on the extremes of the debate, but increasingly from moderate and committed voters who in Leigh, a Northern community that voted heavily to leave the European Union in 2016, have voted Labour for 100 years. They did not vote to leave out of prejudice or intolerance, many of those who voted leave are close friends and fellow members of the Labour Party who fight all forms of racism and xenophobia. But living in a proud ex-mining town in the North, left hollowed by deindustrialisation and then austerity, many in Leigh voted leave for some of the same reasons that they vote Labour – a fact too many in Westminster have been too slow to realise or too quick to reject. – Jo Platt MP for the Sunday Telegraph (£) Priti Patel: Theresa May must deliver the Brexit we voted for or Jeremy Corbyn will sweep into No10, this time for good People are watching proceedings in Parliament with bewilderment and anger. 17.4 million people voted to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum in the biggest act of democracy in our country’s history. And yet, almost three years later, MPs are flailing around making a complete hash of this simple instruction. Whether they voted to leave or to remain, Conservative or Labour, people feel that their votes are being ignored, their voices unheard and that the political antics are paralysing their lives and UK industry. We must not let this national humiliation for our country, the Conservative Party and the government continue. And I’m afraid this comes down to leadership. The Prime Minister has always seen the result of the 2016 referendum as a problem to be resolved, not as a magnificent opportunity to be embraced. That’s why the Withdrawal Agreement is such a bad deal, because we’ve been bending over backwards to accommodate everything that Brussels wants rather than robustly representing British interests. This has got to stop. In the Commons this week, MPs rightly voted against us staying in the EU Customs Union. Doing so would scupper any chance of us having our own independent trade policy and, frankly, it is insulting to people’s intelligence to suggest that staying inside the EU Customs Union is compatible with us leaving the EU. Yet instead of listening to this majority in Parliament, the government has instead chosen to invite a Marxist into No10 to shape their Brexit policy for them. I don’t remember telling voters in our 2017 Conservative Manifesto that we would leave the Customs Union and Single Market unless Jeremy Corbyn insisted otherwise. – Priti Patel MP for The Sun David Davis: The present Brexit road will simply tear our party apart. It has alienated my colleagues, our Party members and our voters On Friday I flew to Berlin to speak about Brexit to a number of politicians and ministers in the German government. The aircraft was an hour late, air traffic control disrupted by fog, in what seemed like an apt metaphor for the Brexit negotiations, running late in a fog of confusion and indecision. I have said many times that negotiations with the EU would only really make substantive progress at the eleventh hour. I think it’s fair to say now we are at the eleventh hour and fifty-nine minutes. The German politicians that I met all stuck closely to the government script, as is the German way. However it was clear that some of them were very uncomfortable with the state of the negotiations, the economic implications for Germany and the prospective political impact on Europe. They want to make progress. We need to change the direction of travel. The present road will simply tear our party apart. It has alienated my colleagues, our Party members and our voters. It is time to face the facts. The Chequers Plan has failed and now the Withdrawal Agreement is discredited. Project fear over leaving without a deal has not worked and it has alienated the British people. Overtures to the most left-wing leader the Labour party has ever had are not going to work. So she should reunite our Party and promote the one deal that will retain the integrity of our country and deliver Brexit in a timely fashion. The British people voted to leave the European Union in good faith. Any breach of trust with them will damage our party for a generation. Focus on the one Parliament approved alternative. It’s not too late. – David Davis MP for the Sunday Telegraph (£) John Whittingdale: Jeremy Corbyn’s Brexit plan is worst of all worlds It was the biggest act of democracy in our country’s history when 17.4 million people voted to leave the European Union. Never has there been a clearer instruction to the political establishment that something had to change. We promised to renew our politics and to take back control of our laws, borders, money and trade. Yet, shamefully, we still haven’t delivered. We should already be celebrating having left the EU and having re-gained our independence, and trade talks with the EU should already be underway. Instead, we’ve endured months of humiliation at the hands of Brussels and we’ve now got the Marxist Leader of the Opposition, Jeremy Corbyn, in No.10 determining what the terms of Brexit should be. Parliament has already outlined what it wants so we don’t need Corbyn’s ideas to poison anything, let alone Brexit. In 2017, four fifths of MPs voted to trigger Article 50 so that the UK would leave the EU on 29th March. In January, a majority of MPs asked the Prime Minister to remove the “backstop” from her deal and earlier this week, MPs rejected the idea of staying in the EU Customs Union. For some reason the Prime Minister is ignoring all this. Belonging to the Customs Union means allowing the EU to determine the tariffs, regulations and rules that govern our businesses. Failing to take back control over our trade policy is not compatible with leaving the EU. Worse still, being inside it whilst leaving the EU would be the worst of all worlds as we would have no legal right whatsoever to change or even influence the rules that affect UK businesses. – John Whittingdale MP for the Sunday Express Anne-Marie Trevelyan: The PM’s handling of Brexit has been a national humiliation from start to finish The cabinet was locked away for seven hours on Tuesday, discussing what the country’s latest Brexit policy was going to look like. Ministers were not even allowed to use their phones, such is the dysfunction at the heart of government. The prime minister’s grand new vision was a shock to us all. The evening before, MPs had voted against us staying in the EU customs union. Instead of embracing this result, the prime minister decided to invite the Marxist opposition leader, Jeremy Corbyn, into No 10 to have him determine our Brexit policy — even though his policy is to remain in the customs union. My mother only ever gave me one piece of advice about relationships. If a man hits you, leave immediately and never go back. Well, right now I feel as if I am trapped in an abusive relationship. If politics is anything, it is that your word is your bond. So believing my leader’s words must be the way to go. And yet now every word the prime minister ever uttered seems to be thrown back in our faces as her actions demonstrate the opposite of her words. Why the sudden love for the customs union, prime minister, when for the past three years you have, rightly, said we must leave it to be free of the EU? Ninety per cent of global growth will come from outside the EU in the years ahead and the customs union prevents us from striking trade deals with these countries. Corbyn’s ridiculous Brexit policy would turn us into a satellite state — binding us to the customs union without giving us any ability to shape the rules that govern our trade. Only an MP like Corbyn, who hates prosperity and success, even though they are the foundation stones for strong public services, could advocate a policy that requires the world’s fifth-largest economy to have the EU determine our trade rules. – Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP for the Sunday Times (£) Daniel Hannan: You cannot cancel Brexit forever, however hard Remainer MPs might try It’s the dishonesty that makes me so bloody angry. Less than two years ago, when they were begging for our votes, Labour candidates promised that they would implement Brexit. Their manifesto was unequivocal: “Labour accepts the referendum result and a Labour government will put the national interest first”. Yet the moment the votes had been counted, many candidates revealed that they had had their fingers crossed behind their backs. A dozen or so Conservatives were flat-out lying when they promised their constituents that they would respect the people’s verdict. So, far more significantly, were around 240 Labour MPs. I have no quarrel with the parties that were open in their opposition to Brexit. The Greens, the Lib Dems and the SNP all went into the 2017 election promising to overturn the result – and all of them lost votes in consequence. Nor do I criticise those individuals who distanced themselves from their party manifestos. Ken Clarke, for example, superbly flicked two nicotine-stained and liver-spotted fingers at the electorate, making clear that he had no intention of abiding by a majority verdict. Fair play to him. But the behaviour of Labour MPs – helped by a small cabal of Tory stinkers – is inexcusable. It is now clear that, despite all the promises they made to their Leave-voting constituents, they aim to overturn the referendum result. And they may succeed. – Daniel Hannan MEP for the Sunday Telegraph (£) Janet Daley: Embrace a long extension, kick out Theresa May, and get ready for a real Brexit The irreconcilable Remainers must think that all their birthdays have come at once. Here at last is the beginning of the end that so many of us predicted. Donald Tusk has uttered the words that might yet deliver the country from what he would probably call a special place in hell. A year’s extension! The first step on to an endless road to nowhere – or rather on to a road that turns round and doubles back on itself! A year in which to exhaust all the energy of the Brexit movement! A delay that can happily go on forever! And best of all, the Brexiteers themselves will carry the blame for their own defeat. They were too purist, too ideologically driven, too intransigent, blah-blah-blah. They overplayed their hand and in the end they lost the game. Oh wait. Maybe that isn’t how it will go at all. Perhaps there is an alternative ending to this story. If the Brexiteers – by which I mean all of them, moderates as well as purists – are not so deranged by now that they cannot put one foot in front of the other, this could be the moment when it all begins to come right. Think of it: a year, a whole year in which to regroup and reconnect and above all to replace Theresa May in a proper, orderly fashion. Rather than a few weeks of frenetic postponement as Mrs May has requested (again), which leaves everything in the same intractable mess with the only choice being the May “deal” or none, and in which time is too short for a change of leader. – Janet Daley for the Sunday Telegraph (£) Sunday Telegraph: Mrs May is inventing new Brexit red lines to woo Labour. When will this madness end? Theresa May’s latest statement on Brexit is exactly why she has to go as Prime Minister – and the sooner, the better. First, she officially rules out a no-deal outcome, offering us instead a choice between disaster and catastrophe: her Withdrawal Agreement (with an ever worse Political Declaration attached) or no Brexit at all. This confirms that the Prime Minister wasn’t telling the truth when she kept insisting that no deal remained a possibility or that she believed Britain could “succeed” in the event. It has never been a strategy the Government took seriously, and the fact that MPs voted against it is entirely in keeping with the wishes of the Treasury, Civil Service, No 10 and the majority of the political class. Secondly, the Prime Minister has rewritten the UK’s red lines in order to cement an unholy alliance with Labour. What she’s effectively saying is, “I tried to work with my own party and the DUP, but they were so unreasonable that I’m now reaching out to Jeremy Corbyn instead” – a man she has previously attacked for being willing to sit down with the IRA. No wonder, as we report, so many Tory activists are going on strike, especially as those who have eyes in their head can see where this coalition is leading us: a customs union. The only red line remaining from Mrs May’s original Brexit Means Brexit formula is an end to freedom of movement. The other two she lists are bogus: leaving with a deal was never something the public voted on, nor was protecting jobs. One might argue that jobs are more likely to be threatened by joining a customs union that prevents Britain from signing new trade deals and allows policy to be set by Brussels, and if anyone did vote on economic lines it was to end over‑regulation, not to sign off on Labour’s bureaucratic agenda straight out of the Seventies. The Prime Minister’s whole approach has gone from incompetent to dangerous. – Sunday Telegraph (£) editorial Dia Chakravarty: Disparate Brexiteers remain united in their crucial quest to restore British sovereignty As our political establishment continues its meltdown, I find myself wondering how we ended up here. David Cameron’s decision to grant us a referendum didn’t occur in a political vacuum. Tony Blair felt the need to promise in 2004 that a referendum would be held on the ratification of the European Constitution Treaty, while Nick Clegg called for an “in-out” vote on our EU membership in 2008. All political parties have, at one time or another, questioned whether to cede power to Brussels or, instead, to protect British sovereignty. And they were responding to public pressure. As Lord Ashcroft Polls discovered in June 2016 , Tory and Labour Leave voters were united in stating that “the biggest single reason for wanting to leave the EU was ‘the principle that decisions about the UK should be taken in the UK’.” It may be true that Brexiteers are a disparate group of people, who have different priorities on trade and immigration policies. But they are ultimately united on the point of self-determination. Whether the UK outside the EU becomes a low-tax, low regulation economy or a socialist utopia should be decided by Westminster, not Brussels or Strasbourg. A conversation I had last week with someone I would normally find on my side of the political divide – an economic and social liberal, if you like labels – but who disagrees with me profoundly on Brexit, went along the following lines. Had I considered what would happen to the UK if Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell won the keys to No 10 and we didn’t have the protection of the EU to stop them from implementing their “Marxist agenda”? I must admit, the thought isn’t a comfortable one, but as a democrat it is not only ideologically incompatible for me to look to a supranational power to prevent a fairly elected government from carrying out its manifesto pledges such as, for example, the renationalisation of the railways. It is also dangerously short-sighted to surrender the ability to determine national policies to an opaque monster of a bureaucracy in the blind hope that it will always yield the “right decision” for every member state, sometimes with competing and conflicting interests. – Dia Chakravarty for the Sunday Telegraph (£) Sunday Times: The Prime Minister takes her begging bowl to Brussels again There have been many occasions in the past 46 years when British prime ministers have regarded trips to Brussels with a sinking feeling. This week’s planned emergency summit in Brussels, 12 days after Britain was supposed to have left the European Union and hard on the heels of the last summit, when Theresa May was granted a “technical extension” to Britain’s membership after she was obliged to leave the room, promises to break all records for humiliation. Britain’s immediate future will be determined by the leaders of 27 other EU countries, some of whom appear to enjoy watching us squirm. Instead of taking back control, the House of Commons and the government have handed it over to the EU, if only temporarily. It was utterly predictable. Not since General Charles de Gaulle twice vetoed Britain’s membership of the European Economic Community in the 1960s with a simple “Non” has a French president had this country in the palm of his hands. President Emmanuel Macron is no de Gaulle but he has inherited some of his imperiousness. The government has to prove that it deserves a further extension of the article 50 process. So disenchanted is the rest of the EU with Mrs May, and so little does it believe her reassurances, there is talk that senior Labour Party figures may have to be in attendance to persuade the Brussels gathering that they are negotiating in good faith with a government that can get a deal passed by the Commons. Even if the Tory party manages to hold together during the remainder of Mrs May’s premiership or for the fixed-term parliament, there is no guarantee that its vote will do so. Ukip and Nigel Farage’s new party may peel away those who think the Tories have betrayed them on Brexit. We are back to the calculations that impelled David Cameron to promise a referendum in the first place. Labour is not immune from these shifts. Change UK, the “remain” group formed by defectors from both main parties, poses a threat but Mr Corbyn stands to gain electorally from Tory disarray. That should concern us all. – Sunday Times (£) editorial The Sun on Sunday: If we stay in a customs union like Labour’s demanding, it’ll be a betrayal to Brexit and shackle us on the world stage Labour’s demand that Britain stays in an EU customs union after Brexit would see us shackled on the world stage. As Liam Fox has pointed out, remaining trapped by Brussels means our once great trading nation would be forced into subservience. The Trade Secretary told the 1922 Committee this week: “The UK would have a new role – we would ourselves be traded.” We couldn’t have put it better ourselves, Mr Fox. Brussels would be able to negotiate access to UK markets as EU policy, irrespective of the wishes or the interests of the UK. Japan would have access to UK markets but we wouldn’t have access to theirs. We would also be disadvantaged in any trade disputes in response to American tariffs. Such an outcome would be a disaster for this country and a betrayal of Brexit voters. Theresa May is flirting with real danger if she is seriously entertaining Jeremy Corbyn’s terms just to get her deal over the line. Labour even want to tie the hands of whoever succeeds her by writing their demands into legally binding text. If Brexit is to mean Brexit, this is one red line she must not cross. – The Sun on Sunday says Brexit in Brief Theresa’s May’s foolhardy Brexit talks with Labour are harming would-be Tory councillors’ chances – Simon Clarke MP for the Sunday Telegraph (£) How Sir Oliver Letwin went from arch-Thatcherite to King of the Remainers – Simon Heffer for the Sunday Telegraph (£) Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn dance close, cudgels hidden – Dominic Lawson for the Sunday Times (£) Theresa May’s kamikaze bid puts Jezza in charge – Carol Malone for The Sun 32 million Britons enjoy tax cut from today in pre-Brexit boost to the economy – MailOnline