The Prime Minister's planned Sunday summit to finalise the Brexit deal is on the rocks as France and Spain try and push the EU to accept more concessions.
Spain said they could block it altogether if Gibraltar is included in a trade deal, and France wants to make the deal more punishing for Britain. Access to our waters for fishing is also a crucial sticking point.
But German Chancellor Angela Merkel's officials warned today that the vital get-together on Sunday still hangs in the balance if the details aren't signed off by TONIGHT – urging them to stop scrapping.
Mrs May is jetting to Brussels this afternoon to negotiate with Jean Claude Juncker up to the wire. He's cancelled a trip to Spain which was meant to last the rest of the week.
But the PM is under huge pressure to deliver more concessions from Brussels – or risk her entire deal being torpedoed by MPs in the Commons.
Mrs Merkel warned today: "We'll hopefully have a European Council on Sunday to sign the exit treaty and discuss future relations."
But she vowed that Britain won't be able to leave a customs union deal without Brussels say so – further dashing hopes for Brexiteers that the deal can be altered.
She told the German Parliament: "We have placed value on the fact Britain can't decide unilaterally when it ends the state of the customs union, but that Britain must decide this together with the EU."
European capitals are unwilling to thrash out last minute details at the meeting itself and won't speak to Mrs May until right towards the end.
Instead Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis set Friday morning, when EU leaders' chief advisors meet in Brussels, as the deadline for a "final text".
He said: "We'll need to have agreed beforehand on the Political Declaration on the future relationship and we're not there yet.
"The Commission stands ready to consider the text and take any action at any time."
An EU diplomat told The Sun: "It's nobody's intention to make [Sunday] a negotiation summit. No Merkel, no summit.
"If No 10 feels it needs a negotiating one and is willing to risk another Salzburg, they hold the keys. But the appetite for risk here is low."
The PM's spokesman said: "A summit has been called, an agenda has been published and we look forward to attending."
The spokesman refused to confirm that the meeting will definitely go ahead as planned.
Earlier today Mrs May has warned her MPs that her deal is the only way to avoid a divisive second referendum on Brexit.
The Prime Minister made the stark statement of her deal or "risk no Brexit at all" as she prepares to jet to Brussels for crunch talks with the EU.
She told MPs in Prime Minister's Questions today: "If you look at the alternative to having that deal with the European Union, it will either be more uncertainty, more division, or it could risk no Brexit at all."
Mrs May said she would "continue to negotiate on that future partnership" later today when she has afternoon tea with Jean Claude Juncker.
She was asked repeatedly by Tory MPs to go back and renegotiate, with one Brexiteer urging her to "cut away the tentacles of the EU" for good.
But she slapped down the colleagues who want to try and change her deal, she said there were three clear ways to get out of a never-ending customs union – and MPs should back it when it comes to the Commons.
This morning the Prime Minister was warned she must squeeze extra Brexit concessions or her deal will get torpedoed in the Commons. A Tory source said: "The chief whip's view is that fear of No Deal will not be enough to win this one.
They went on: "The numbers are terrible and he needs something sufficiently different from what people currently think they are voting for in order to get this through."
But new DWP boss Amber Rudd said today that No10's strategy of pressuring MPs to vote for the deal because of the fear of nothing at all wouldn't work.
In remarkable comments this morning she insisted that there was "no majority" in Parliament for No Deal.
She also said she believed that if MPs voted down the deal, Parliament would prevent us leaving with nothing at all in place.
Ms Rudd, who took over from Esther McVey last week, told Radio 4 that MPs should take a "fresh look" at the deal once Mrs May comes back with it later.
"This is the cake, it's been baked, the Prime Minister will bring it back… perhaps that will remind colleagues that there is still a negotiation going on," she said.
The news comes today as:
- A top Labour frontbencher today broke ranks with Jeremy Corbyn to demand a final say for the people on Brexit. Steve Reed said in the Evening Standard: "Only the people can break the logjam."
- Tory MP Damian Collins also called for an election or a second referendum if Parliament voted down the deal – which would throw Brexit into further chaos.
- But Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Liz Truss, said Tories faced a choice between Mrs May's deal or "we're in grave danger of not leaving at all" and she was "worried about what the alternative looks like".
The Prime Minister is in a stronger position as she jets off today after a coup against her failed to materialise, and not enough letters came in to force a vote of no confidence in her.
It is believed that the Brexiteer rebels are still a few letters short of the 48 needed, and yesterday Jacob Rees-Mogg admitted it had all gone a bit 'Dad's Army' – and warned a coup against her could come next month instead.
And Cabinet ministers could get behind a new technological solution to solve the Irish border issue – as first revealed by The Sun this week.
Mrs May told her ministers yesterday the country could avoid having to use the controversial Irish border backstop after Brexit because of a new plan to avoid a hard border with "alternative arrangements" of technical solutions away from the border.
Meanwhile, today Ex-Brexit boss Dominic Raab today demanded we threaten to walk away with our £39billion to force the EU into action.
Writing in the Telegraph he blasted: "This is a historic struggle for the heart and soul of our country – between those who believe that managed decline is all we have left, and those of us who believe that this country's best days lie ahead."
The current document on our future partnership with the EU is just seven pages long, but Cabinet ministers were this week shown a 20-page draft which will be discussed between Mrs May and Mr Juncker today.
"The more flesh we can put on the bones, the better. It will mean more things to more people and we can take more of the party with us," one senior government source told Sky News.
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