Theresa May issues ‘last chance’ plea to Jeremy Corbyn after Tory Brexit backlash

Theresa May has launched a desperate personal plea to Jeremy Corbyn to back her Brexit deal following a backlash over her last-ditch compromise.

Appealing to the Labour leader in a letter, the prime minister declared that a vote on her withdrawal agreement next month was the “last chance” to deliver Brexit.

She said her 10-point plan unveiled on Tuesday to “seek common ground in parliament” had shown that “I am willing to compromise”.

“I ask you to compromise too, so that we can deliver what both of our parties promised in our manifestos,” she urged.

What the PM pitched to win over MPs:

:: Attempt to find alternative arrangements to replace backstop by December 2020
:: If that fails, Britain will stay aligned with Northern Ireland
:: Future relationship objectives to be approved by MPs
:: Workers rights, environmental protections and border checks rules on goods to keep pace with EU
:: Seek as close to frictionless trade as possible
:: MPs to get vote on customs compromise and another referendum

Mr Corbyn has already said that the concessions are not enough to earn Labour’s support, but promised to “look seriously” at the details of her new offer when they are published in full.

He has also raised “a question of the deliverability of it” given the jostling by Conservative MPs for the keys to 10 Downing Street.

The showdown will come in the first week of June, when Mrs May tries to get MPs to pass legislation that would turn her EU divorce deal into law.

She spelt out the details for the first time in what could be her last major speech on Brexit in London and promised the full version of the Withdrawal Agreement Bill will be released “in the next few days”.

But within hours she was even facing an even bigger crisis, with Tory MPs who had reluctantly lent their support to the prime minister in previous Brexit votes pledging to reject it.

One called the package “f****** awful” and predicted to Sky News she would be on course for a defeat of 150 votes.

While potential leadership candidates such as Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab announced they would oppose the deal.

Another MP openly questioned whether it would “ever” be tabled in parliament given the backlash.

And the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the government’s confidence and supply partners, insisted that “the fatal flaws” of the deal “remain”.

Mrs May will have to face the wrath of her backbenchers in the Commons today, as she gives a statement to MPs.

She has promised to spell out a resignation timetable after the vote, but is already facing renewed calls to quit.

If the vote does go ahead in June, it will come in a busy political week.

US President Donald Trump’s state visit and the Peterborough by-election are both due in the same period.

(c) Sky News 2019: Theresa May issues ‘last chance’ plea to Jeremy Corbyn after Tory Brexit backlash