Number 10 had hoped that if it could hold off the Cooper amendment again next week, then it could eke out a concession from the EU on the backstop. But as I say in The Sun this weekend, this approach has been complicated by Jeremy Corbyn’s soft Brexit plan.
This scheme, obviously, appeals to the EU: it would keep Britain in the customs union and following many of the rules of the single market. ‘The Labour party and the EU are operating in tandem to some extent, which is worrying for us’ frets one Cabinet Minister.
So, May needs to persuade Brussels that such a deal couldn’t get through because her government would collapse as soon as she proposed it.
If May can persuade EU leaders of this, which is far from certain, she then needs to try and get legally binding changes to the backstop out of them.
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