Theresa May will make a last-ditch attempt to persuade the EU to give her a better Brexit deal on Friday, as she struggles to hold her crumbling government together following a day of cabinet embarrassments in Westminster.
The prime minister will plead with EU leaders to offer further concessions, as it became clear that talks in Brussels have stalled and hardline Eurosceptics in her party are likely to vote down the deal for a second time in parliament next week.
Senior Tory critics of May expressed astonishment that her strategy was a refusal to change course in the face of defeat, with one cabinet source saying No 10 realised it was about to lose the meaningful vote but seemed unable to make a coherent case to MPs why they should vote for it.
Instead, May will turn her fire at the EU in a speech delivered from the Brexit stronghold of Grimbsy in Lincolnshire, saying: Just as MPs will face a big choice next week, the EU has to make a choice too.
It is in the European interest for the UK to leave with a deal. We are working with them but the decisions that the European Union makes over the next few days will have a big impact on the outcome of the vote.
A senior government adviser said she could announce straight after losing the meaningful vote that she would seek an extension from the EU, knowing that she would only get either a short technical extension to enable the passing of her withdrawal deal or a lengthy 21-month one enabling a full rethink dubbed a Brexit reset.
The prime minister would then return to the House of Commons for a third time to put those proposals to a vote.
Earlier, in the House of Commons, Cox rebuffed the idea from France’s Europe minister, Nathalie Loiseau, that the UK should make a new substantial proposal to break the impasse.
I am surprised to hear the comments that have emerged over the last 24 hours that the proposals are not clear. They are as clear as day and we are continuing to discuss them, Cox said.
The Labour party has been talking for a long time about the idea of a customs union grafted onto the PM’s deal.
Those of my colleagues who feel very strongly against that proposal need to think very hard about the implications of voting against the prime minister’s deal next Tuesday, because we will then be in unknown territory where a consensus will have to be forged across the House of Commons and that will inevitably mean compromises being made, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.