Theresa May is ready to let MPs decide on how to break Brexit deadlock as talks with Labour look destined to fail after their demands for a second referendum

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Theresa May is set to let MPs decide on how to break the Brexit deadlock as her own furious ministers urged her to end talks with Labour today.

If the plug is pulled the Prime Minister will offer the Commons a series of 'definitive votes' to try to settle the matter after the European elections conclude on May 23.

Talks with Labour resume today after seven weeks without any breakthrough, but Mrs May is under growing pressure to abandon them after Jeremy Corbyn's chief negotiator insisted a second referendum must be the price of any deal.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said today a new EU poll would be a 'betrayal' as he downplayed the chances of one being offered to Mr Corbyn and the PM's spokesman later confirmed she is opposed to any form of Brexit referendum.

Communities Secretary James Brokenshire has revealed the Government's Plan B 'would be to go back to Parliament to have a series of definitive votes'. 

The votes on whether to accept Mrs May's deal, a second referendum, a customs union with the EU or revoking Article 50 completely, could be held within weeks - but a similar exercise in March and April failed to find a majority.

Talks between the Tories and Labour were left in turmoil this morning after Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer said a deal without a second referendum is 'impossible' because up to 150 Labour MPs would reject it.

He said: 'I've made it clear that at this stage – at this 11th hour – any deal that comes through from this Government ought to be subject to the lock of a confirmatory vote.'

But the Prime Minister has always made clear that a second Brexit poll after 17.4million voted to leave the EU in 2016 is a red line she is not prepared to cross.  

Theresa May, pictured today speaking to victims and social workers at a domestic abuse charity in West London, has said a second referendum is a red line she wouldn't cross

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, pictured at an EU meeting in Brussels today, says a second referendum would be a 'betrayal'

Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer (pictured centre) warned up to 150 Labour MPs would reject an agreement with the Government that did not include another vot

European Council president Donald Tusk (pictured right today with Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip), has urged the UK not to 'waste this time' after the Brexit deadline was extended to October 31

Arriving in Brussels for a meeting of the EU's Foreign Affairs Council today, Jeremy Hunt told reporters: 'From the Conservative point of view we have always said that we think that would be a betrayal of what people voted for and we want to implement the first referendum'.  He added that it was a 'crunch week' for the talks with Labour.  

Communities Secretary James Brokenshire also said a new poll would be wrong because it is 'not giving effect to the original vote'.

He said: 'These talks are about delivering on the result not reopening the debate, creating more uncertainty and division. If we go down this approach of a confirmatory referendum that's taking us in a different direction that's not delivering on the original vote'. 

Away from Brexit a domestic abuse survivor told Prime Minister Theresa May her support 'makes a world of difference' as she visited a charity helping women and children.

The PM visited Advance, a charity which supports women and children who have survived abuse across the capital, at its headquarters in west London on Monday morning.

It coincides with Mrs May's announcement of plans to end the postcode lottery for domestic abuse survivors and ensure councils have a legal obligation to provide them with secure homes.  

Theresa May will meet the cabinet tomorrow where she will face Brexiteers including Home Secretary Sajid Javid and Liam Fox, both pictured today

Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson also admitted this morning he believes it would be 'difficult' for his party to assist Mrs May in the UK's exit from the EU without another referendum. 

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'The difficulty is just parliamentary arithmetic and Keir Starmer has alluded to this today as well, and John McDonnell did last week.

'The whipping arrangements for these deals is very difficult because MPs have hardened their positions within their parties so I think it would be very difficult.'

Mr Watson continued: 'If a deal could be found that inspires enough votes in Westminster then fine, but it seemed to me that that's very, very difficult.

'And so my idea of a confirmatory ballot is not a religious point or a point of ideology, it's just how do you get an outcome, how do you sort this out?

'And one way to do it are these two minority positions - the Prime Minister's deal and those that think the people should have a say on the deal - plug them together and you build a majority.'

Meanwhile Labour's deputy leader, Tom Watson says a second referendum is the only way to deliver on a Brexit deal

Mr Watson described Labour's position in relation to the European elections as a 'remain and reform' party.

'We are remain and reform party but obviously when it comes to a deal people can form their own view,' he told Today.

'But when it comes to that European election let me just say Remain is not on the ballot paper in that election.'

Chancellor Philip Hammond is said to be among those who have lost faith with the plan to strike a cross-party deal, which the Times reports he believes is a 'false premise'.

'If we can't do a deal with Labour we need to throw our weight behind indicative votes,' a government source said. 

And the PM's husband Philip May is said to be seeking a 'dignified exit' for his wife, having been her 'rock', encouraging her to hold out against calls for her to go for many months.

One minister told The Sun: 'If she can't find a majority for Brexit in the next couple of weeks, does she really risk abject humiliation at the national convention on June 15?

'Or does Philip sit down with a whisky and tell her it's time. I suspect he'll tell her not to put herself through that and, knowing her, she won't want to put the party through that either.' 

The Brexit talks between Labour and the Tories so far 'have been serious' but 'they have also been difficult', Downing Street said today.

With the two teams due to meet again on Monday evening, the Prime Minister's official spokesman said Mrs May has made clear her views about a second public vote, insisting she was 'focused on delivering the result of the first referendum'.

The spokesman acknowledged that 'we need to get on with it' but declined to put a deadline on the talks process or the publication of the Withdrawal Agreement Bill.

'If we were able to make progress with Labour then we would look to bring the bill before the House of Commons before the European elections,' he said.

Nigel Farage later said the idea of a confirmatory referendum was the 'most outrageous proposal' he had ever seen and would lead to a party like the Brexit Party winning a majority in Parliament at the next general election. 

Tories slump to FIFTH place behind Lib Dems and Greens as voters flock to Farage's Brexit Party 

The Brexit Party is enjoying a growing lead in a new EU election poll with the Tories now in fifth

The Tories face the ignominy of finishing fifth in the EU elections as Nigel Farage continues to give them a battering, a new poll revealed today.  

The Brexit Party is racing ahead with a predicted 34 per cent of the vote on May 23 - but Theresa May's Conservatives are heading for just 10 per cent, a YouGov survey has found.

This would put the Prime Minister's party in fifth place behind the Greens and the Liberal Democrats, who were on 15 per cent and 11 per cent respectively.

The collapse in support for the Conservative Party is piling pressure on Mrs May to set a date for her departure from No 10 - but Labour is also down five points on 16 per cent, with confusion over their Brexit position continuing.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, leader of the Brexiteer European Research Group of Tories, appealed for disillusioned Conservatives to stick with the party for the sake of Theresa May's replacement.

He said: 'I would appeal to their loyalty, to their tradition and to say that the Conservative Party will get a new leader at some point. We have gone from 40 per cent to 10 per cent in the polls and those are Eurosceptics. It is forgetting about them that is destroying the Tory party's vote'.

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Speaking during a walkabout in Pontefract, part of Labour MP Yvette Cooper's constituency, Mr Farage said: 'A confirmatory vote, it sounds all nice and fluffy, what does it mean?

'It means we stay in the European Union as we are, or we nominally leave and stay permanently part of a customs union and with single market rules. They wouldn't even give the public the option of actually leaving. It's the most outrageous proposal I've ever seen.

'It wouldn't break the deadlock, it would just mean we're not leaving the European Union. It would just mean, basically, the second referendum would be there, giving two choices to reverse the result of the first one. It's an outrage, it cannot happen.

'I promise you this, if we get forced as a country into that choice of a referendum, there'll be bigger change in British politics than anybody can even imagine.'

DUP leader Arlene Foster had claimed a confirmatory Brexit referendum would place democracy at risk.

Mrs Foster, who was attending the launch of her party's European election manifesto in Belfast, also criticised Prime Minister Theresa May for lacking the vision of a strong United Kingdom post-Brexit.

'What people want to see is democracy being respected. Unfortunately it hasn't been respected and we have a Remain parliament, therefore parliament has not been able to deliver on Brexit in the way it should have been delivered upon,' she said.

'We have a Prime Minister frankly who doesn't have the vision for the United Kingdom post Brexit that we all want to see. We want to see a United Kingdom that is strong post-Brexit and has a close relationship with Europe.'

Cabinet Ministers who want her to move to Plan B are understood to include DWP Secretary Amber Rudd, Justice Secretary David Gauke and Business Secretary Greg Clarke. 

Sir Keir Starmer, who has taken part in five weeks of the talks, suggested Labour could call time within days if no new offer is forthcoming.

Speaking to the Guardian ahead of another meeting on Monday, Sir Keir said he doubted any agreement that was not set to be ratified by a public vote would pass through Parliament.

'A significant number of Labour MPs, probably 120 if not 150, would not back a deal if it hasn't got a confirmatory vote,' he said.

'If the point of the exercise is to get a sustainable majority, over several weeks or months of delivering on the implementation, you can't leave a confirmatory vote out of the package.'  

Chancellor Philip Hammond is said to be among those who have lost faith with the plan to strike a cross-party deal he believes is a 'false premise'

Nigel Farage takes aim at 'vulnerable' Labour in Yvette Cooper's Yorkshire seat

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage poses for a selfie with a member of the public during a 'walkabout' campaigning for the European Parliament election in Pontefract today

Nigel Farage has said that the Labour party is 'vulnerable in the most extraordinary way' in Leave areas in the north of England.

The Brexit Party leader was speaking during a visit to Pontefract, West Yorkshire, part of Labour MP Yvette Cooper's constituency, where 70% of voters voted to leave the EU.

Mr Farage said he had seen a lot of anger and passion in Labour Leave areas in northern towns, as he toured the UK ahead of next week's European election.

He said: 'The passion seems even stronger in Labour Leave areas than in Conservative Leave areas.

'Whether that's because people in the north of England wear their hearts on their sleeves more, I don't know.'

Mr Farage spoke to members of the public who told him that they were usually Labour voters, but would be voting for the Brexit Party in the forthcoming election.

He said: 'It's areas like this where I think the Labour party is vulnerable in the most extraordinary way.'

He continued: 'This is a 70% Leave constituency, these five towns voted Leave by a massive margin.

'You've got a member of Parliament who, at the general election a year later, promised to honour the result, and has spent the last two years, effectively, trying to stop Brexit from happening.

'So there is real anger in these places, and we focus on the Conservatives being in real trouble over the EU issue.

'In the north of England, Labour are in very big trouble too.'

Mr Farage said the option of a confirmatory referendum was an 'outrage' and would lead to a change in British politics if implemented.

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The issue of a confirmatory referendum has been an internal battleground within Labour ranks, with Sir Keir pushing for one but shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey, also part of the negotiating team, less keen.

But Sir Keir highlighted how the party lost 200 lost seats in this month's council elections, which he said were a sign Labour was losing the trust of Remain as well as Leave voters.

With less than two weeks before the European elections, the shadow Brexit secretary urged Labour Remainers tempted to vote for the Lib Dems or Change UK that only Jeremy Corbyn's party could deliver a fresh referendum.

'There is concern in leave areas about whether some of our voters might vote for other parties, but I think there is an increasing concern that some of the Labour Remain voters might not vote Labour,' he said.

'It is very important that we learn those lessons.'

Tom Watson will use a speech today to push for a second referendum. 

Philip Hammond's parliamentary aide Hugh Merriman, who supports another referendum as a way of carrying out Brexit, told BBC Radio 4 Westminster Hour his party will do badly in the European Parliament elections later this month.

He told Carolyn Quinn: 'The public will blame the Conservative Government because we were the party that brought forward the referendum. And so for those that didn't want it and wanted Remain they'll blame us for having tried to take us out.

'And for those that voted to leave they'll blame us for having not got the country out of the EU. We're at the perfect storm so yes I think we'll get an absolute mauling.'

Education Secretary Damian Hinds expressed support for finding a 'stable majority' by allowing MPs to vote on different options.

'If we can't do a deal with Labour we need to throw pour weight behind indicative votes,' a Government source said, adding moves to step up no-deal planning would be resisted.

'How can we campaign against the Brexit Party if their campaign for a no-deal Brexit is our contingency plan?

'Nothing better sums up the ludicrousness of our situation than that.'