REVOLT BREWS AS MAY WOOS CORBYN

PM’s hints of a customs deal ‘by next week’ trigger huge Tory backlash

THERESA May was facing a mounting Tory backlash last night after she hinted that a customs union deal could be made with Jeremy Corbyn as early as next week.

During a question and answer session with MPs yesterday, Mrs May repeatedly refused to rule out signing up to some form of customs union if that was the price of a deal with labour.

The Prime Minister said she and the labour leader were ‘trying to achieve something very similar’ on customs arrangements in order to protect jobs, although she insisted that her own deal would deliver similar benefits without restricting the scope of future trade deals.

Hints at a possible compromise prompted a backlash from Tory eurosceptics yesterday. One Cabinet source predicted fewer than 100 Conservative MPs would back the option – forcing Mrs May to pass her deal mainly with labour votes. Housing minister Kit Malthouse said a customs union would be ‘very difficult for quite a lot of members of the parliamentary party’.

Asked if he could back such a deal himself, he replied: ‘I would need to see what details come out.’

Steve Baker, deputy chairman of the european Research Group, said agreeing a customs union would be ‘a repudiation of our manifesto commitments’ and suggested the Government could collapse if she tried to force through a deal opposed by her party and the DUP. ‘It is a dreadful idea – an utter of the benefits we could get from Brexit,’ he said.

‘I cannot see how the PM could maintain confidence and supply in her government if she tried to force it through.’

But chief whip Julian Smith warned the Cabinet on Tuesday that Parliament’s refusal to pass Mrs May’s Brexit deal meant the Government would be unable to leave the EU without labour’s support. Mr Smith told ministers: ‘It’s a customs union or a second referendum, and we are not having a second referendum.’

And the shadow business secretary Rebecca long-Bailey said ‘pragmatically’ the PM would have to meet labour’s demand on the issue, adding: ‘They may have no option [if they want] to push this through.’ Mrs May did little to damp down speculation that a compromise deal on a customs union may be in the offing, repeatedly stating when asked if she could accept such an arrangement that it depended what the definition of a customs union was.

A labour source said the party’s negotiators had seen ‘clear evidence that the Government is prepared to explore shifts in its position’, but said that no movement away from Mrs May’s red lines had yet been ‘locked down’.

Mrs May has also admitted that the three-year spending review could be scaled back if her Brexit deal is not passed. The Mail understands that the next plan for government spending will only span a year – meaning the next Tory leader will not be tied to Mrs May’s priorities and will be free to shape their own plans.

A senior minister said a one-year spending review had been discussed – and was necessary to allow a future leader freedom to

‘It’s a dreadful idea – an utter surrender’

set their own priorities. They said that the next leader will want to plan departmental spending and not be hamstrung by Mrs May’s plans.

They could also decide to do a three-year spending review, and make the announcement in February if Mrs May is no longer in office.

Another senior minister also said that this was on the cards.