Theresa May set to let MPs decide as Brexit talks hit buffers

Theresa May is preparing to concede giving Parliament “definitive votes” to decide Brexit terms as furious MPs pile pressure on her and Jeremy Corbyn to abandon their talks.

With the cross-party negotiations now entering their seventh week without any sign of a breakthrough, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt insisted: “This is a crunch week.”

Communities Secretary James Brokenshire said that if the plug is pulled, the “next step” will be to hand power to Parliament to decide, not by the indicative votes once considered by the Prime Minister “but actually a series of definitive votes” to settle the matter.

Labour was also divided, with Mr Corbyn’s deputy Tom Watson openly challenging his refusal to firmly back a second referendum.

In other developments today:

• An exclusive opinion poll revealed the astonishing scale of the damage being inflicted on both major parties by the Brexit disarray, while the Remain-backing Liberal Democrats and Greens were surging upwards. The Conservatives have plunged to a humiliating fifth place in the capital, backed by just 10 per cent of Londoners in the European elections, the YouGov survey, commissioned by Queen Mary University of London, found. The Greens are ahead of them on 14, while the Lib Dems are on 17.

• Mr Corbyn faces punishment from Remain-backing London voters in a general election, with his party’s vote share down from 49 per cent share in December to 35 per cent today. The Conservatives are also down from 33 to 23 in London, with the Lib Dems up from 11 to 21, YouGov found.

• Nigel Farage claimed he should get a seat at the Government’s negotiating table with the EU should his Brexit Party take the most votes at the European election. “If millions of people voted for us, we need to have a say,” he told TalkRadio. In London, his newly formed party is poised to get a 20 per cent share on May 23, YouGov said.

• Senior government aide Huw Merriman, who is parliamentary private secretary to the Chancellor, predicted “an absolute mauling” for the Conservatives in the European election, saying: “The public will blame the Conservative government because we were the party that brought forward the referendum.”

Downing Street and Mr Corbyn’s camp were due to resume the cross-party talks this afternoon. Mr Hunt said they had been “very, detailed discussions” despite the pessimism surrounding their prospects.

Asked if the Government could back a second referendum, he said ministers were aiming to honour the 2016 vote by delivering Brexit, but kept the door open by adding: “But let’s see where these talks go to.”

Mr Brokenshire said that if the talks failed, the Plan B would be to go back to Parliament. “To have almost not a series of indicative votes but actually a series of definitive votes to seek to get to a place of where that sense of where Parliament is, to be able to pass the Withdrawal Agreement Bill, to be able to have that vote to see that we leave — that’s the next stage,” he told the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

The Labour leader faced fresh pressure from his deputy Mr Watson, who declared today that Labour is a “Remain and reform party” and stressed he would like to see a “confirmatory” vote on Mrs May’s Brexit proposals.

Backing shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer in an open challenge to Mr Corbyn, Mr Watson argued that it would be “very difficult” to get a sustainable parliamentary majority for a Brexit deal without a second referendum attached.

His intervention also highlighted the deep split in Labour over its EU policy. Shadow international trade secretary Barry Gardiner recently said: “Labour is not a Remain party now.”

Sir Keir spoke out today ahead of a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party, when MPs were set to demand that Mr Corbyn pull out of talks with the Government.

He believes that 120 to 150 Labour MPs would refuse to back a cross-party agreement if it fails to include another public vote on quitting the EU, which suggested it would be “impossible” to get it through the Commons given the level of Tory opposition.

Mr Watson echoed his concerns over the challenge to get a deal through Parliament without another referendum.

“The whipping arrangements for these deals is very difficult because MPs have hardened their positions within their parties,” he said. The deputy Labour leader argued that there would be a Commons majority by “plugging together” Mrs May’s plan with another public vote.

“So my idea of a confirmatory ballot is not a religious point or a point of ideology — it’s just how do you get an outcome,” he added, stressing he had reluctantly come to this conclusion and does not back a second referendum in all circumstances.

If the Prime Minister bowed to Labour’s demands and agreed to a customs union-based future relationship with the EU, then the shadow cabinet would have to decide whether to recommend another public vote, Mr Watson added, but he does not expect Mrs May to make the offer.

The poll of 1,015 Londoners was carried out from May 7 to 10 for QMUL’s Mile End Institute. Writing in the Standard, Professor Philip Cowley said the Conservatives were heading for their “worst result” in the capital since modern politics began.