Labour and Tories warned not to ‘cut adealon Brexit’

Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May have been warned not to cut a Brexit deal with one another, with the Prime Minister facing the prospect of resignations from her Cabinet if she gives ground on her “red lines” in talks with the Labour leader.

Treasury Chief Secretary Liz Truss refused to rule out quitting if Mrs May accepted Mr Corbyn’s demand for a customs union.

She told Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme: “I appreciate Jeremy Corbyn has come to the table but the reality is what he is proposing does not deliver on what we want as a country.”

Asked if the government should back a customs union she said: “I absolutely do not think that should be our policy.”

SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford claimed Labour and the Government were “leading Scotland and the UK hand in hand off the Brexit cliff edge”, and said: “It is alarming that, despite the overwhelming damage that the Prime Minister’s deal will cause to Scotland, the Labour leader would seek to support the deal.

“Everything from living standards, jobs, security arrangements, market access for our services sector, to our world class universities are set to suffer under the terms of the Prime Minister’s deal.”

Meanwhile, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling faces pressure to resign after a controversial ferry contract with a firm that owned no vessels had to be terminated. “The Transport Secretary should face the music for presiding over this affair,” SNP MP Joanna Cherry said. “This fiasco has become the ultimate metaphor for Brexit – a complete farce, a government deluding itself and the public and, ultimately, an ill-fated disaster.”

Scotland’s Brexit minister, Michael Russell, said the Scottish Government’s resilience committee was considering using air cargo or “making use of special sailings” to bring essential supplies into Scotland in a no-deal Brexit.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said the UK Government should call a second EU referendum rather than “bolstering the ferry fleet like we’re preparing for Dunkirk”.