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Yesterday: PM’S humiliating climbdown to keep Davis aboard could delay Brexit until 2021

THERESA May was forced into a humiliating climbdown in a desperate bid to stop Brexit Secretary David Davis quitting yesterday.

The Prime Minister bowed to mounting pressure from Cabinet Leavers and agreed to insert a specific date into her customs blueprint, outlining when “backstop” arrangements would end.

The move is designed to prevent a hard border in Northern Ireland if negotiators fail to come up with a better plan.

But Brussels rubbished the move, with EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier asking if it was “an all-weather backstop”.

Mrs May’s decision means the UK could stay signed up to EU customs union rules until December 2021 – five-and-a-half years after Britain voted to quit the bloc.

Existing arrangements are already due to last until December 2020, through the 20-month transition period after the UK formally quits on March 29.

Ministers have agreed to fork out £39billion for the interim deal and No10 refused to rule out paying extra cash to Brussels to stay tied to the customs union for an extra year.

May’s U-turn came after a series of faceto-face discussions with Mr Davis and his fellow leading Brexiteers, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and International Trade Secretary Liam Fox.

Mr Davis had an early-morning summit lasting more than an hour with Mrs May in her parliamentary office, at which he left the door open to resigning.

He was then hauled into No10 at noon for a second crunch meeting. The key document was finally published just after 1pm, outlining the fall-back plan lasting until the end of 2021.

Remain-supporting MPS branded the wording a “fudge” designed to convince Mr Davis he had won a compromise.

Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer said: “This is another embarrassing day for the Government. The clock is ticking on the process and it is imperative an agreement is struck to protect jobs and the economy, and ensure there is no hard border in Northern Ireland.

“Instead, with the threat of a Cabinet resignation, Theresa May has signed up to a flawed proposal which is inconsistent with her earlier commitments.”

Labour MP Jo Stevens, of the Best for Britain campaign, said: “Someone had to blink in this Brexican stand-off and, as has too often been the case, the PM has bowed to the pressure of the Brexit bully boys.

“Some Brexiteers are cheering this non-win over the ‘expected’ leaving date.

“One thing which will almost certainly be time-limited is the victory party, because the EU will reject the proposal before it arrives in Brussels.

“No one comes out of this a winner. David Davis has shown how keen he is to get shot of the whole thing, the Prime Minister has only narrowly avoided a complete meltdown in her Government and the country has been told via a white paper that its prosperity is being sacrificed under the altar of Brexit extremism.

“This is a fudge.”

The European Parliament’s Brexit co-ordinator Guy Verhofstadt said it was “difficult to see how the UK proposal... will deliver a workable solution”.

And Mr Barnier tweeted: “We will examine it with 3 questions: Is it a workable solution to avoid a hard border? Does it respect the integrity of the SM/CU (single market/customs union)? Is it an all-weather backstop?”