Theresa May’s ‘bold’ new Brexit deal heading for defeat despite offer of new referendum

The prime minister warned a negotiated Brexit will be ‘dead in the water’ if MPs reject her plan

Theresa May’s last-ditch attempt to salvage her Brexit plan looked doomed to failure as angry Tory MPs deserted her and opposition parties gave a cold shoulder to efforts to woo them.

The prime minister launched an audacious bid to win support for her “new deal” with a string of concessions specifically tailored to win over Labour MPs, Remainers, Brexit hardliners and Ulster unionists.

Among them were a Commons vote on whether a Final Say referendum should be held before ratification, a promise to safeguard European standards of workplace and environmental protections, and a choice on the future customs arrangements the UK should pursue with the EU.

But there was no promise of a free vote for Tory MPs on the fresh public vote – and no guarantee that Remain would be an option on the ballot paper.

Jeremy Corbyn immediately announced his party could not support the EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill package.

The DUP’s Nigel Dodds said the proposals – described by the PM as a “bold” new approach to Brexit – retained “fundamental flaws” of earlier plans unchanged.

At least a dozen former Tory rebels who switched to back the PM in the third meaningful vote in March, keeping her margin of defeat down to 58, said that they would vote against the new deal.

Among them was leadership hopeful Dominic Raab, who said: “I cannot support legislation that would be the vehicle for a second referendum or customs union. Either option would frustrate rather than deliver Brexit.”

Boris Johnson - who backed the PM in March - said: "The Bill is directly against our manifesto - and I will not vote for it. We can and must do better - and deliver what the people voted for."

Ms May outlined her deal at the Charing Cross offices of consultancy firm PWC in London, after an extended three-hour cabinet meeting at which “robust” opposition to a second referendum was offered by ministers including Andrea Leadsom and Chris Grayling.

Describing it as “a new offer to find common ground in parliament”, the PM said she had tried to respond to concerns from all sides of the house and “reach out to every single one of my colleagues to make the very best offer I can”.

She warned that a second referendum would risk “opening the door to a nightmare future of permanently polarised politics”.

And outright rejection of her deal would mean an orderly negotiated Brexit any time soon was “dead in the water”.

In a direct appeal for support in the withdrawal agreement bill vote which will determine her fate in the first week of June, she said: “I say with conviction to every MP of every party – I have compromised. Now I ask you to compromise too.”

But Mr Corbyn said that on the key issues of customs, market alignment and environmental protections, Ms May was offering no more than “a repackaging of the same old bad deal, rejected three times by parliament”.

And Mr Dodds said: “”Many of the proposals on the backstop serve as an attempt through domestic law to mitigate a bad deal, whereas the focus should be on getting a better deal.”

The PM faced a hail of scorn from Tory backbenchers who had switched to back her in March, including Charlie Elphicke, who dismissed her package as “a dog’s breakfast”, and former leader Iain Duncan Smith, who called it “a bad buffet of non-Brexit options”.

Key concessions included:

• A legal obligation to seek technological solutions to the Irish border issue by the end of 2020, to avoid the need for the controversial “backstop”, together with a commitment that mainland Britain will remain aligned with Northern Ireland under any backstop arrangement;
• A right for MPs to approve negotiating objectives for future relations with the EU;
• A Workers’ Rights Bill to guarantee protections “no less favourable than in the EU”;
• No changes to levels of environmental protection after Brexit;
• “As close to frictionless trade as possible” with the EU outside the single market; and
• An MPs’ vote on the compromise offer of a temporary customs union.

Aides said that the PM intends to have key votes completed in time to go to the European Council summit in Brussels on 20 June to renegotiate elements of the political declaration on future relationships agreed in November.

But they were unable to give a timetable for a second referendum if MPs back the Final Say option. Previous estimates suggest a public vote would take months to organise, almost certainly forcing a further extension of the Brexit deadline of 31 October.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable said his party would not back the bill without a guarantee of a referendum, while Final Say-backing Green MP Caroline Lucas said Ms May had done no more than “put lipstick on a pig”.

The interim chief executive of the Best for Britain campaign for a Final Say vote, Naomi Smith, rejected Ms May’s offer as “a trap – and a pretty transparent one at that”, adding: “Remainers from all parties should not be fooled; they must still vote this terrible deal down.”