Theresa May has said she is preparing to make a “bold offer” to MPs in a final attempt to get her beleaguered Brexit deal through as the latest polls showed the Conservatives on course for humiliation in Thursday’s European elections.
The Prime Minister outlined how she will make a final attempt to get her withdrawal agreement onto the statute book before she leaves office despite cross-party Brexit talks collapsing last week.
However, Jeremy Corbyn warned he had heard nothing yet from the government that would persuade him that Labour should now fall in behind her.
May will certainly face renewed calls from Conservative MPs to step down immediately if this week’s European Parliament elections are as disastrous as they appear.
A survey by YouGov and Datapraxis of more than 9,000 people has Labour being pushed into third place behind the Liberal Democrats in voting intentions for Thursday’s Euros vote, while the Tories are trailing in fifth behind the Greens.
Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party is way out ahead of the other parties on 34%, with the Lib Dems in second on 17%, two points ahead of Labour on 15%. The Greens are on 11% and the Conservatives down to single figures on 9%.
On the Labour side, it is likely to lead to a fresh push for Jeremy Corbyn to get fully behind a second referendum.
Ministers will begin discussions on Monday on a package of measures to be included in the forthcoming Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB) aimed at securing cross-party support.
The weekly meeting of the Cabinet on Tuesday will then consider plans for a series of “indicative votes” in the Commons to establish which proposals could command a majority in the House.
The WAB – which is needed to ratify the deal with Brussels – is expected to include new measures on protecting workers’ rights, an issue where agreement with Labour was said to have been close.
However, government sources made clear the package would not just be aimed at Labour MPs but would seek to secure the widest possible support across the Commons.
It is expected to include provisions on future customs arrangements with the EU, on environmental protections, and on Northern Ireland, including the use of technology to avoid the need for border controls with the Republic.
It will not, however, seek to re-open the Withdrawal Agreement – which included the controversial Northern Ireland “backstop” – after the EU repeatedly made clear it could not be re-negotiated.
May has said she will bring the WAB before MPs for its second reading vote in the first week of June following the short Whitsun recess.
Regardless of how the vote goes, she will then meet the chairman of the Tory backbench 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady, to agree a timetable to elect her successor as party leader, paving the way for her departure from No 10.
The Prime Minister expected to set out details of her WAB proposals in a major speech before the end of the month.
But after three previous attempts to get her deal through the Commons went down to hefty defeats, many Tory MPs are sceptical that her fourth will fare any better.
Another defeat would almost certainly see a ratcheting up of demands for her to go immediately, amid intense frustration at her failure to deliver on the 2016 referendum result.
Writing in the Sunday Times, May said: “I still believe there is a majority in parliament to be won for leaving with a deal.
“When the Withdrawal Agreement Bill comes before MPs, it will represent a new, bold offer to MPs across the House of Commons, with an improved package of measures that I believe can win new support.
“Whatever the outcome of any votes, I will not be simply asking MPs to think again. Instead I will ask them to look at a new and improved deal with fresh pairs of eyes – and to give it their support.”
But Corbyn told BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show: “We haven’t seen whatever the new Bill is going to be yet but nothing I’ve heard leads me to believe it’s fundamentally any different to the previous Bill that’s been put forward, so as of now we’re not supporting it.”
However, a Cabinet minister has claimed the Conservatives and Labour are just “half an inch apart” on the terms of a Brexit deal,
International Development Secretary Rory Stewart said that despite the collapse last week of cross-party talks aimed at finding an agreed way forward, there was little that divided the two sides.
He suggested that even if the Labour leadership was not prepared to support May’s deal when she brings it back to the Commons next month, other “moderate, sensible” Labour MPs may do so.
Meanwhile, Tory grandee Michael Heseltine has said he will not be supporting the Conservatives in the European election, and will instead vote Liberal Democrat.
The former deputy prime minister and lifelong pro-European said the party has become “infected by the virus of extremism” and he cannot endorse its support for leaving the EU.
In an article for The Sunday Times, he said: “The reason for my experiment with the Lib Dems is, of course, the Government’s position on Brexit.
“I cannot, with a clear conscience, vote for my party when it is myopically focused on forcing through the biggest act of economic self-harm ever undertaken by a democratic government.”
His call for the Tories to reclaim the political centre ground was echoed by former prime minister Sir John Major.
He told The Sunday Times that the need for an inclusive Tory party is “greater than ever”, and warned: “The middle ground of politics is empty.”