Theresa May to warn EU chiefs her Brexit deal will be voted down if they don’t climb down over the Irish backstop

DESPERATE Theresa May will today tell EU chiefs their Brexit deal will be voted down by MPs next week unless they climb down.

The PM’s last ditch plea comes as her high stakes stand-off with Europe’s bosses over the Irish backstop rolls into a third day.

With talks still stalled after Tuesday’s Brussels bust up, Attorney General Geoffrey Cox last night called off a new trip to the Belgian capital today - with only four days to go until a final Commons showdown.

No10 aides privately admitted the situation was “pretty bleak”, and the PM may now need to press ahead with Tuesday’s vote without a new deal in the thin hope a majority for her hoped-for legal changes wins the EU round.

In a Brexit speech in Grimsby today, Mrs May will say: “Just as MPs will face a big choice next week, the EU has to make a choice too.

“We are both participants in this process.

“The decisions that the European Union makes over the next few days will have a big impact on the outcome of the vote.”

MAY'S DESPERATE PLEA

The PM will add: “It is in the European interest for the UK to leave with a deal”.

As the tension mounted in Brussels and Westminster yesterday:

•  Theresa May will be forced to negotiate a soft Brexit if hardline Tory MPs vote down her EU deal next week, the Chancellor has warned.
• It emerged the Brexit talks were plunged into deadlock after EU chiefs insisted euro judges must have the final say over when Britain can leave the hated Irish backstop,
• In another blow for Downing Street, the Brexit Ministry’s top mandarin yesterday revealed he was retiring on the very date of the UK’s EU departure.

I fear we’d better prepare for no deal.

EU diplomat

During Tuesday night’s testy talks, Government legal chief Mr Cox put forward Britain’s plan for a new dispute system to allow the UK to leave the backstop.

Under his blueprint, a panel could decide Britain was entitled to end the border fix if it had made good enough proposals for alternative arrangements to kick in.

But EU negotiator Michel Barnier rejected it, arguing it would undermine the European Court of Justice’s role in policing the Single Market.

The veteran French politician then tabled his own proposals for a legal document to give MPs “appropriate assurances” on the backstop.

But Government sources last night insisted Mr Barnier’s plan would leave Mr Cox unable to change his legal advice that the backstop could be inescapable.

An EU diplomat told The Sun: “The Cox version of the backstop is based on no apparent understanding of the Withdrawal Agreement, customs procedure or EU law. It will never fly with Member States.

“He wants a legal fix to a political issue. If this is the game plan, I fear we’d better prepare for no deal.”

In the Commons yesterday, Mr Cox also hit back at eurocrats’ attack that his proposals were too vague, insisting: “They are as clear as day”.

Delivering his most blunt threat to the ERG yet, Philip Hammond suggested the PM would be prepared to rip up her deal to pursue a customs union with the EU instead, if compelled by the Commons.

The move would spark uproar among hard Brexiteers, who instead want her to defy Parliament to carry out a No Deal Brexit instead.

My colleagues who feel very strongly need to think very, very hard about the implications of voting against the Prime Minister’s deal.

Philip Hammond

The Sun has learned that Mrs May’s Chief of Staff Gavin Barwell confirmed the planned radical change of path to a softer Brexit during meetings with Tory MP ministers aides, telling them that the Government would face “some very difficult decisions” if the Meaningful Vote on Tuesday is lost.

Mr Hammond warned: “Those of my colleagues who feel very strongly need to think very, very hard about the implications of voting against the Prime Minister’s deal next Tuesday, because we will then be in unknown territory.

“A consensus will have to be forged across the House of Commons, and that will inevitably mean compromises being made”.

Labour’s Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer dubbed Mrs May’s plea “an admission of failure”, adding: “It’s becoming increasingly clear that Theresa May will not be able to deliver the changes she promised to her failed Brexit deal”.

In a surprising move, DexEU’s Permanent Secretary Philip Rycroft announced he was retiring on the very date of the UK’s planned EU departure, despite no deal having yet been agreed.

The top civil servant insisted he must fulfil a promise to his family in Scotland to return to them.

But pro-EU campaigners said the surprising decision revealed the Government to be “in chaos”.

Brussels’ top official said negotiations could go right down to the wire on March 29.

Commission secretary-general Martin Selmayr said EU deal making “often happens at the very last minute” and called for “patience” on both sides.

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