Theresa May tries to get Corbyn to back the backstop

In a speech in Downing Street yesterday evening after a mammoth Cabinet meeting, the Prime Minister said she that she now plans to ask the EU for a further extension to delay Brexit for a second time.

That, the weakened Prime Minister said, would be to allow the UK to leave the EU “in a timely and orderly way”.

In an apparent signal of willingness to accept a far softer form of Brexit, Mrs May offered to hold talks with the Labour leader to agree a plan acceptable to both, which can be put to the House of Commons ahead of the April 10 summit of the European Council.

However, Mrs May made clear that “any plan would have to agree the current Withdrawal Agreement” – which includes the backstop.

The Labour leader said he would be “very happy” to meet the Prime Minister in a bid to offer “certainty and security” to the British people. But until now Mr Corbyn has said that he is strongly opposed to the nature of the backstop.

Last July, when asked if he could guarantee there would be no Irish backstop in a Labour-negotiated Brexit deal, Mr Corbyn told Euronews: “There certainly wouldn’t be a backstop from which you can’t escape.”

Speaking in 10 Downing Street after a marathon session of Cabinet lasting over seven hours, Mrs May said that any further delay to Brexit should be “as short as possible”.

She said a bill to pave the way for departure would have to be in place by May 22 to ensure the UK did not have to take part in European Parliament elections.

Any new proposal would have to accept the Withdrawal Agreement and focus on amendments to the Political Declaration on the future EU/UK relationship, she said.

Setting out her plan for talks with Mr Corbyn, Mrs May said: “The ideal outcome of this process would be to agree an approach on a future relationship that delivers on the result of the referendum, that both the leader of the Opposition and I could put to the House for approval and which I could then take to next week’s European Council.

“However, if we cannot agree on the single unified approach, then we would instead agree a number of options for the future relationship that we could put to the House in a series of votes to determine which course to pursue.

“Crucially, the government stands ready to abide by the decision of the House. But to make this process work, the opposition would need to agree to this too.”

Standing at a lectern with the Government crest, before two Union flags, the Prime Minister added: “This is a decisive moment in the story of these islands and it will require national unity to deliver the national interest.”

Mr Corbyn said: “We will meet the Prime Minister. We recognise that she has made a move, I recognise my responsibility to represent the people that supported Labour in the last election and the people who didn’t support Labour but nevertheless want certainty and security for their own future and that’s the basis on which we will meet her and we will have those discussions.”

Ministers began their Cabinet meeting at 9.30am, initially sitting in “political” session in the absence of civil servants. The meeting finally wound up shortly before 5pm, but ministers were held inside without access to their mobile phones while Mrs May prepared her statement.

Mrs May said she believed that Britain “could make a success of no-deal in the long term”, but added: “Leaving with a deal is the best solution.”