Mayday! PM’s calls to all 27 EU leaders

THERESA May last night continued her intense round of telephone diplomacy that has seen her speak to 20 of the 27 other EU leaders since Monday.

She plans to hold calls with the remaining seven this week.

The Prime Minister will also travel to Brussels to meet European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, as part of a lastchance diplomatic blitz before she faces another Commons vote next week.

MPs from all sides have warned they could back a contentious amendment to seize control of the process from Mrs May and postpone Brexit if she has not made sufficient progress towards getting her deal amended.

But ministers yesterday risked a fresh row with hardline Tory Eurosceptics after Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright said Mrs May could abandon her demand for the Withdrawal Agreement to be re-written. He suggested instead of getting changes to the wording about the controversial Irish backstop, the Prime Minister may accept clarifications in a separate legal document.

His remarks appeared to back up reports that Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay told EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier last week that the Government was not pursuing a reopening of the Withdrawal Agreement.

Appearing on BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show yesterday, Mr Wright was repeatedly asked if Mrs May would stick to her plan to seek changes to the Irish backstop that ‘involve reopening the Withdrawal Agreement’.

He said: ‘Parliament are concerned about the potential indefinite nature of the backstop – that’s what we’ve got to do something about. If this is the only way of doing it then that’s the way we will pursue. If there are other ways of doing it that are just as effective that perhaps we haven’t yet explored then we will do that too.’

He added: ‘I don’t think it’s the mechanism that matters, it’s the objective.’