Brexit deal hangs by a thread as Theresa May leaves Brussels with NO breakthrough and admits she needs MORE talks with EU

THERESA May will launch a last-minute bid to save her Brexit deal in emergency talks with the EU, she revealed tonight.

The PM announced crisis talks to be held in Brussels on Saturday - less than 24 hours before an emergency summit which is supposed to seal the whole deal.

EU leaders have threatened to call off Sunday's summit altogether as they bid to squeeze yet more concessions out of Britain.

The further delay means the deal is likely to be frantically rewritten over the coming days and may not be finalised until a few hours before all EU leaders meet on Sunday morning.

Mrs May held talks with top Eurocrat Jean-Claude Juncker tonight - but the pair failed to sign off on the Brexit withdrawal agreement.

Speaking after the two-hour meeting in Brussels, the PM said: "We've had a very good meeting this evening, we've made further progress.

"I now plan to return for further meetings, including with President Juncker on Saturday, to discuss how we can bring to a conclusion this process and bring it to a conclusion in the interest of all our people."

She added: "There are some further issues that need resolution, we've given direction to our negotiators this evening - the work on those issues will now start immediately."

The text of the 585-page withdrawal agreement which was published last week is unlikely to be changed at this late stage.

But the shorter "future framework" which outlines the future UK-EU trade deal has not yet been completed - and could provide vital clues to how Britain will be treated by the Continent after Brexit.

Mrs May is keen to use the document to show she WILL end up making a clean break with the EU, while aggressive European governments want to play hardball to punish Britain for leaving.

This week Spain said they could block the Brexit deal altogether if Gibraltar is included, while France wants to make the agreement more punishing for Britain. Access to our waters for fishing is also a crucial sticking point.

Angela Merkel warned today that the vital get-together on Sunday still hangs in the balance if the details aren't signed off by TONIGHT - urging other leaders to stop scrapping.

The German Chancellor said: "We'll hopefully have a European Council on Sunday to sign the exit treaty and discuss future relations."

But she vowed that Britain won't be able to leave a customs union deal without Brussels' say-so - in a blow for Brexiteer hopes that the withdrawal deal can be altered.

She told the German parliament: "We have placed value on the fact Britain can't decide unilaterally when it ends the state of the customs union, but that Britain must decide this together with the EU."

European capitals are unwilling to thrash out last-minute details at the Sunday meeting itself, and won't speak to Mrs May until it's almost over.

Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis set Friday morning, when EU leaders' chief advisors meet in Brussels, as the deadline for a "final text" - although Mrs May's comments this evening seem to have scuppered that.

He said: "We'll need to have agreed beforehand on the Political Declaration on the future relationship and we're not there yet.

"The Commission stands ready to consider the text and take any action at any time."

An EU diplomat told The Sun: "It's nobody's intention to make [Sunday] a negotiation summit. No Merkel, no summit.

"If No 10 feels it needs a negotiating one and is willing to risk another Salzburg, they hold the keys. But the appetite for risk here is low."

The PM's spokesman said: "A summit has been called, an agenda has been published and we look forward to attending."

But the spokesman refused to confirm that the meeting will definitely go ahead as planned.

Chancellor Philip Hammond tonight predicted that relations will run more smoothly once the withdrawal agreement is signed - with both sides investing more trust in one another.

He told ITV's Peston: "I hope that once we get this deal done there will be more trust, more openness and more willingness to progress."

Earlier today Mrs May warned her MPs that her deal is the only way to avoid a divisive second referendum on Brexit.

The Prime Minister told the Commons it must opt for her deal or "risk no Brexit at all".

She told MPs at Prime Minister's Questions: "If you look at the alternative to having that deal with the European Union, it will either be more uncertainty, more division, or it could risk no Brexit at all."

Mrs May said she would "continue to negotiate on that future partnership" during her meeting with Mr Juncker.

She was asked repeatedly by Tory MPs to go back and renegotiate, with one Brexiteer urging her to "cut away the tentacles of the EU" for good.

But she slapped down the colleagues who want to try and change her deal, said there were three clear ways to get out of a never-ending customs union - and called on MPs to back it when it comes to the Commons.

This morning the Prime Minister was warned she must squeeze extra Brexit concessions or her deal will get torpedoed in the Commons. A Tory source said: "The Chief Whip's view is that fear of No Deal will not be enough to win this one.

They went on: "The numbers are terrible and he needs something sufficiently different from what people currently think they are voting for in order to get this through."

But new DWP boss Amber Rudd suggested that No10's strategy of pressuring MPs to vote for the deal because of the fear of nothing at all wouldn't work.

In remarkable comments this morning she insisted that there was "no majority" in Parliament for No Deal.

She also said she believed that if MPs voted down the deal, Parliament would prevent us leaving with nothing at all in place.

Ms Rudd, who took over from Esther McVey last week, told Radio 4 that MPs should take a "fresh look" at the deal once Mrs May comes back with it later.

"This is the cake, it's been baked, the Prime Minister will bring it back... perhaps that will remind colleagues that there is still a negotiation going on," she said.

The news came as:

• A top Labour frontbencher today broke ranks with Jeremy Corbyn to demand a final say for the people on Brexit - Steve Reed said: "Only the people can break the logjam"
• Tory MP Damian Collins also called for an election or a second referendum if Parliament voted down the deal
• But Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Liz Truss, said Tories faced a choice between Mrs May's deal or "grave danger of not leaving at all"
• The Tory civil war hotted up further as Jacob Rees-Mogg was banned from speaking at a fundraising dinner by party bosses
• Ex-Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab claimed the withdrawal agreement would stop Britain controlling its own borders
• Mrs May's DUP allies vowed to "fight dirty" in their bid to defeat her deal

The Prime Minister was in a stronger position today after a coup against her failed to materialise, and not enough letters came in to force a vote of no confidence in her.

It is believed that the Brexiteer rebels are still a few letters short of the 48 needed, and yesterday Mr Rees-Mogg admitted it had all gone a bit "Dad's Army" - and warned a coup against her could come next month instead.

And Cabinet ministers could get behind a new technological solution to solve the Irish border issue - as first revealed by The Sun this week.

Mrs May told her ministers yesterday the country could avoid having to use the controversial Irish border backstop after Brexit because of a new plan to avoid a hard border with "alternative arrangements" of technical solutions away from the border.

The current document on our future partnership with the EU is just seven pages long, but Cabinet ministers were this week shown a 20-page draft which was to be discussed between Mrs May and Mr Juncker today.

"The more flesh we can put on the bones, the better. It will mean more things to more people and we can take more of the party with us," one senior Government source told Sky News.