Brexit... is it codpiece in our time?

THERESA May will today make a desperate plea to the European Union to grant changes to her Brexit deal that could help it get past MPS.

It comes after Attorney General Geoffrey Cox returned from Brussels talks emptyhanded – and bizarrely referenced his plan’s nickname, “the Cox codpiece”. “What I’m concerned to ensure is that what is inside the codpiece is in full working order,” he said, of his aim to get changes to the controversial Backstop. Cabinet ministers have privately admitted they expect the Prime Minister’s plan to be defeated by a substantial margin in next week’s crunch second vote.

Both EU and Downing Street officials are downbeat about the prospect of a breakthrough on the Backstop – and without one, Mrs May will struggle to get Tory Brexiteers on side.

She will say in a speech in Grimsby today: “It is in the European interest for the UK to leave with a deal. We are working with them but the decisions that the EU makes over the next few days will have a big impact on the outcome of the vote.”

But shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer said: “This speech looks set to be an admission of failure.” It came after Chancellor Philip Hammond warned Tory Brexiteers that if they vote down the deal they risk a softer departure from the EU.

And former Labour PM Gordon Brown joined business leaders and trade unionists to call for a year-long delay to Brexit to prevent the “national political disaster” of leaving the EU on the wrong terms.

SUPPORT NEEDED Cox in the Commons