ULTIMAY-TE BETRAYAL
Theresa May caves in to Labour Brexit wishlist and offers vote on a second referendum in last-ditch push to save her deal
The PM today begged MPs to back her with a 'New Deal' for Brexit
THERESA May today caved in to Labour's Brexit demands as she made a last-ditch bid to save her deal - but it was immediately rejected by Brexiteers and the Labour leader.
The desperate PM even offered MPs the right to vote on holding a second EU referendum in a desperate gambit to avoid a fourth humiliating Commons defeat next month.
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She promised stronger workers' rights, protections for the environment and a Commons veto over trade talks to try and win cross-party backing for her "new Brexit deal".
The PM - who backbenchers forced her to agree to stand down - said: "I have tried everything I possibly can to find a way through. I offered to give up the job I love."
Mrs May made the deeply personal appeal this afternoon days before the Tories are expected to get a kicking in European elections as voters who feel betrayed flock to Nigel Farage's Brexit party.
But rebel Brexiteers responded with fury and pledged to vote down the deal when it returns to Parliament in two weeks' time.
The PM admitted this evening that she is unable to get the deal approved with the support only of Tory MPs - and reached out to Labour to try and push it through the Commons instead.
Despite the collapse of talks with Jeremy Corbyn, she still believes she can win over enough Labour backbenchers to save the Withdrawal Agreement Bill.
Mrs May insisted that she wants Britain to quit the customs union but revealed she will give MPs the chance to stay in it if they prefer - and also let them vote on whether or not to hold a second referendum which could overturn Brexit altogether.
She said: "To those MPs who want a second referendum to confirm the deal - you need a deal and therefore a Withdrawal Agreement Bill to make it happen."
If MPs vote against this bill, they are voting to stop Brexit
Theresa May
But the PM also issued new assurances designed to stop Britain getting trapped in the hated Irish backstop, in an attempt to win back Brexiteer rebels from her own party.
She warned: "If MPs vote against the second reading of this bill, they are voting to stop Brexit."
The so-called "alternative arrangements" to keep the Irish border open without resorting to the backstop would need to be approved by Brussels, raising the prospect of another diplomatic showdown.
Mrs May admitted: "I knew that delivering Brexit was not going to be simple or straightforward. The result in 2016 was decisive, but it was close.
"The challenge of taking Brexit from the simplicity of the choice on the ballot paper to the complexity of resetting the country’s relationship with 27 of its nearest neighbours was always going to be huge.
"While it has proved even harder than I anticipated, I continue to believe that the best way to make a success of Brexit is to negotiate a good exit deal with the EU as the basis of a new deep and special partnership for the future."
The PM said the Brexit deadlock was risking "a nightmare future of permanently polarised politics" with Britain deeply divided over leaving the EU.
Theresa May's ten offers to MPs in 'New Brexit Deal'
1) Delivering an alternative to the hated backstop by December 2020
2) Making sure Great Britain stays aligned with Northern Ireland if the backstop is ever used
3) MPs get to sign off on the negotiating stance for an EU trade deal
4) A workers’ rights bill to woo over Labour MPs which keeps them stronger than the EU
5) No change in environment rules after Brexit
6) Close frictionless trade in goods with the EU - but outside the single market and still ending free movement
7) Stay up to date with EU rules on goods and agri-foods
8) MPs get to vote on whether Britain should stay in a temporary customs union
9) Another vote on whether the Brexit deal should go back to the people for a second referendum
10) Promises to change the future political declaration so all the changes are enshrined in law
And she concluded: "By passing a deal we can actually get Brexit done – and move our country forwards. If we can do so, I passionately believe that we can seize the opportunities that I know lie ahead.
"The world is changing fast. Our young people will enjoy opportunities in the future that my generation could have never dreamed of.
"This is a great time to be alive. A great future awaits the United Kingdom. And we have all we need as a nation to make a success of the 2020s and the 2030s.
"But we will not do so as long as our politics remains stuck in an endless debate on Brexit.
"I say with conviction to every MP of every party – I have compromised. Now I ask you to compromise too. We have been given a clear instruction by the people we are supposed to represent.
"So help me find a way to honour that instruction, move our country and our politics forward, and build the better future that all of us want to see."
The changes to the deal are designed to win over each of the different groups opposing her, including Tory Brexiteers, Labour MPs and the DUP.
CRUNCH VOTE AHEAD
The PM hopes they will be enough to get the Withdrawal Agreement Bill through Parliament in two weeks' time - the final throw of the dice for her Brexit deal.
But within minutes, Tory Brexiteers declared they will vote against the bill - even if they backed the deal in the previous "meaningful vote" in March.
Iain Duncan Smith said: "I can't see that we've taken back control over anything. The backstop is still there, it’s a customs union in all but name and it puts Brussels firmly in control of our destiny."
Anne-Marie Trevelyan added: "Now the Government is trying to ram its botched deal through on Labour votes by keeping us in the customs union, allowing Brussels to dictate our future trade policy and breaching our Conservative manifesto."
And Charlie Elphicke blasted: "This is even more of a dog’s breakfast than the last deal."
Jacob Rees-Mogg, who switched sides to support Mrs May last time around, said: "I wouldn't put money on my backing the deal. This is unquestionably worse than we were with MV3.
"The PM, having negotiated with herself, has given in to her left-wing Brussels self rather than her Conservative self."
Boris Johnson, the favourite to replace her as PM, tweeted: "With great reluctance I backed MV3. Now we are being asked to vote for a customs union and a second referendum.
"The Bill is directly against our manifesto - and I will not vote for it."
Jeremy Corbyn also resisted Mrs May's overtures, saying: "Theresa May's new Brexit deal is a rehash of her old bad deal and Labour cannot support it."
But Chancellor Philip Hammond responded: "Britain needs a Brexit that feels like a compromise; one that everyone can live with."
And Liam Fox added: "Those voting against the Bill will be voting against the delivery of Brexit itself. Voters will see clearly whether their MPs have kept their promise or not."
Cabinet spent more than two hours discussing the package this morning. Senior ministers had threatened to quit if the bill involved a softer Brexit with a customs union attached.
I can't see that we've taken back control over anything
Iain Duncan Smith
Mrs May was said to have told her top team: "It's vital to find a way to get it over the line".
Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom said earlier today: "As long as [the bill] continues to be leaving the European Union, I continue to support it."
But piling on the pressure to Mrs May, she added: "I will want to see that it delivers Brexit" - defined by her as being out of the customs union and single market.
She also said that Britain should leave the EU without a deal on October 31 if there still wasn't a chance of getting one.
Labour's Emily Thornberry slapped down hopes that her party's leadership might be able to get behind the PM's deal today.
She told Radio 4: "She cannot realistically expect to see this get through without fundamental changes and we are not going to see fundamental changes, from everything I hear."
And Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell added: "These are the dying days of an administration and it's very difficult to see that they can provide any form of security that would enable Labour MPs to vote for this."
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MOST READ IN BREXIT
However, even if Labour's official policy isn't to back it, some backbenchers in Leave-backing seats could be prepared to get behind the concessions to tip it over the line.
The Brexit bill is set to come back to the Commons in the first week of June, with Mrs May hoping to get it signed off before the summer recess.
She's refused so far to reveal a date when she will step down as PM, but has indicated she will resign after putting her deal to MPs for the fourth time - whether she wins or loses.
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THE SUN SAYS
THE barrage of abuse from all sides over Theresa May’s final desperate capitulation tells its own story.
No wonder her Leave MPs are screaming blue murder.
She has already welched on almost every promise. Now, after all she has said, she has even offered the second referendum mob a binding chance to engineer Brexit’s destruction.
For good measure she has caved to a string of Labour demands that, if Brexit happened, would shackle us so tightly to the EU it would look all but pointless.
It still isn’t enough for Corbyn’s party. Nothing could be. Their sole interest is in wrecking the Tories.
Nor is it enough even for “people’s vote” Remainers. They don’t want to risk a Commons vote they could lose. They demand to be GIVEN their second referendum, against the wishes of MPs and the public.
At least the PM didn’t go that far. But she should not have budged an inch.
A second vote before the first is enacted would be a grotesque abuse of democracy, enough to destroy public faith in it for a generation.
Mrs May is presumably confident a majority of MPs would reject it. That’s irrelevant. It is political suicide.
Leave voters now see Tories as the party that botched Brexit, then surrendered over a “people’s vote” and promised to legislate for it if approved.
We respect that Mrs May, in the dying days of her disastrous rule and with no majority, tried to unite MPs around a compromise. But by tossing baubles at entrenched and utterly opposed sides she has simply alienated them all.
What a gift this doomed gambit is for Nigel Farage, his Brexit Party already riding high before the euro elections.
And what a terrifying catastrophe for the Tories: for the PM who negotiated ineptly, the Remainers who shamefully sabotaged our position and the backbench ERG Brexiteers whose purism defeated the only available deal.
We warned them then that Brexit would only get softer with their party left to plummet into the abyss. We were right.
Their time may soon be up. Theresa’s is already.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn says Theresa May's new Brexit deal is undeliverable and that he will not be supporting it
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