Theresa May to make last-ditch plea to EU to agree backstop changes

Theresa May will make a last-ditch plea to the EU to agree legally binding changes to the controversial backstop to allow her party’s MPs to back it.

In a move that the BBC says is “an admission of how tough negotiations with the EU were proving”, she will say later: “Just as MPs will face a big choice next week, the EU has to make a choice too”.

Speaking to workers in Leave-supporting Grimsby, she will tell the EU: “We are both participants in this process. It is in the European interest for the UK to leave with a deal.

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“We are working with them but the decisions that the European Union makes over the next few days will have a big impact on the outcome of the vote.”

EU sources have told Sky News that Brussels would take a “dim view” of her words while Labour's Sir Keir Starmer said it was now “clear” the PM “will not be able to deliver the changes she promised to her failed Brexit deal”.

The shadow Brexit secretary added: “This speech looks set to be an admission of failure.”

Since MPs overwhelming rejected the prime minister's deal in January, the largest defeat for a sitting government in history, May has concentrated on modifying the backstop, an insurance policy designed to prevent physical checks on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

The vast majority of Tory Brexiteers bitterly oppose the backstop in its current form.

Despite reports that London has been focusing on the backstop in talks with the EU this week, the Daily Telegraph reports a senior figure in Emmanuel Macron's French government as claiming the UK had not actually made a formal offer to the EU on proposed changes to the backstop.

However, UK attorney general Geoffrey Cox insists that government plans to resolve the issue were “as clear as day” and talks with the European leaders would “almost certainly” continue throughout the weekend.

Most observers remain pessimistic. The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg says “the mood is not good around the government” while The Independent says “the mood of cabinet ministers has been grim in recent days”.

As the clock ticks down to next week’s second meaningful vote and the overall deadline of 29 March, Cabinet Brexiteer Liam Fox told the BBC's Newsnight he was concerned that Brexit may end up being cancelled.

“The thing that I fear is that... there will be a risk that we might not deliver Brexit at all,” he said.