It is 29 April. A month ago today was the day when the UK was supposed to leave the EU. A month on, not only is the UK still a fully signed-up member, but the government is no closer than it was to finding a Brexit outcome that has any chance of passing parliament.
This ought to be a cause of outright panic at Westminster but in recent days the Brexit conversation has gone reasonably quiet and, reportedly, that is partly because Conservatives have been told to pipe down on this subject in the run-up to the local elections on Thursday. According to Glen Owen and Harry Cole in the Mail on Sunday yesterday:
Downing Street aides are also urging all ministers and MPs to avoid the airwaves to ‘bang on about Brexit’ in the next four days – or face being blamed for worsening an expected local elections drubbing on Thursday.
A No 10 source said: ‘Word has gone out to shut up for a few days. There is a direct correlation between us arguing on television and people getting fed up, so we are hoping to avoid that on the eve of the polls.’
But not every Tory has got the memo. On the BBC’s Westminster Hour last night, Priti Patel, the Brexiter former international development secretary, said the party would do badly at the locals because of the failure to deliver Brexit. She explained:
I think without a doubt that frustration is there. I have heard it myself. I’ve experienced it both with my council candidates and when I’ve been on the doorstep … The mood is dark. The public are frustrated. They are fed up I think more widely with politics and the way in which Brexit has been handled and in particular the fact that, as many people say to me in my constituency, they expected us to leave effectively on the 29th of March. This has not happened.
They are also very unhappy with the tactics and antics of Westminster politicians, for example, taking no deal off the table, indicative votes and really I think it’s fair to say the sort of anti-democratic way in which the House of Commons has behaved against the referendum mandate.
And in a column in the Daily Telegraph (paywall) this morning, John Redwood, another Brexiter, says the failure to deliver Brexit will harm his party.
Many voters feel let down by both main parties, who promised to take us out of the EU but who have conspired to keep us in for longer. The polling for the European elections shows Labour and the Conservatives on a combined 37 per cent or so, under half their level of support of less than two years ago.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9am: Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Conservative MP and chair of the European Research Group, which represents Tories who want a harder Brexit, holds his LBC phone-in.
11am: Downing Street lobby briefing.
Afternoon: Talks resume between Labour and the government in the search for a Brexit compromise.
As usual, I will be covering breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. I plan to post a summary at lunchtime and another when I wrap up.
You can read all the latest Guardian politics articles here. Here is the Politico Europe round-up of this morning’s political news. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’s top 10 must-reads.
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