MAY-HEM AS PM SHIFTS BLAME 750,000 jobs may be axed

THERESA May’s warring Cabinet has split into three factions, each battling to seize control of Brexit.

Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd reckons the PM’S deal will not get through Parliament unless she reaches out to other parties. The Sunday People can reveal she has already held talks with Labour MPS about a Norway-style deal. And she also believes it is time to consider a second referendum. The second group, including Environment Minister Michael Gove, favours the Norway option relationship with the EU. A third faction, including Cabinet Minister Andrea Leadsom, are willing to risk crashing out with no deal.

The divisions intensified this week when the EU knocked back Mrs May’s attempts to secure changes to her deal. Ms Rudd, whose position is supported by Chancellor Philip Hammond and Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington, urged Government to “abandon outrage and accusations” and called for a “practical, sensible and healing approach”.

She said in a newspaper: “We need to try something different... to engage with others and be willing to forge a consensus. That requires politicians to be more prepared to work with anyone who is willing to accept you can’t always get what you want.” LEAVING the EU without a deal could cost 750,000 jobs, a study shows.

Even a soft Brexit could see 400,000 jobs go, says the report by the UK Trade Policy Observatory at Sussex University.

Under no deal, it says 148,050 jobs could be lost in London, 80,950 in

North West England, 63,500 in Scotland and 28,600 in Wales.

The Cities of London and Westminster parliamentary seat could shed 42,400 jobs because of no deal’s impact on the financial sector.

Some 950 people in Tory Brexiteer Jacob Rees-mogg’s North East Somerset constituency could be out of work.

And about 1,700 jobs could go in Theresa May’s Maidenhead, Berkshire, constituency.

Labour MP Jo Stevens, of anti-brexit group Best for Britain, said: “No one voted to be made poorer and for their jobs to be less secure. Brexit feels like an albatross around the country’s neck.

“The real choice, which should be put to the people, must include our current bespoke deal as a member of the EU.“