CRUNCH national unity talks collapsed last night as Theresa May sent a grovelling letter to the EU begging for another Brexit extension.
The third day of discussions ended with no sign of a breakthrough and Labour blaming Mrs May for refusing to budge.
Sir Keir Starmer, Labour’s Brexit chief, said: “So far, the Government isn’t proposing any changes to the deal. In particular, it’s not countenancing any changes to the actual wording of the Political Declaration.
“Now, obviously that’s disappointing — compromise requires change. We want the talks to continue and we’ve written in those terms to the Government, but we do need change if we’re going to compromise.”
Further talks are mooted for this weekend. But with just six days to go until our formal exit day of April 12, the PM has written to EU Council President Donald Tusk to ask for it to be put back to June 30.
She told him she was seeking a consensus but getting any agreement ratified “will take time”.
Ministers and Labour’s frontbench have been trying to find a way out of the impasse since Wednesday.
Labour was expecting Mrs May to give them a customs union and match future EU workers’ rights as part of a make-or-break offer.
But it claimed No 10 refused to enshrine the changes in the Brexit Political Declaration, which would have made them legally binding.
Downing Street scrambled to try to resuscitate the negotiations.
A spokesman said: “We have made serious proposals and are prepared to pursue changes to the declaration in order to deliver a deal acceptable to both sides.
“The Government is determined to work constructively to deliver Brexit and avoid participation in European Parliamentary elections.”
But Mrs May had already made her extension request, her second after the original March 31 deadline was pushed back to April 12.
EU leaders will decide whether to agree at a summit on Wednesday. It will take only one of the 27 other member states to block it to trigger a No Deal Brexit on Friday.
However, they are thought more likely to demand Britain accepts a “flextension” stretching until at least the end of the year.
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Mrs May is desperate to take us out of the EU before May 22 to avoid the costly European elections.
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Britain could be left with no option other than accepting a long extension if a deal could not be passed by Wednesday.
He told the BBC: “If we can’t find a way through with Parliament then we have no choice.”
Nicola Sturgeon said the delay requested by Mrs May only offers a “new cliff edge”.
The First Minister said: “The sensible thing to do is to have a longer extension to allow time for this to go back to the people in another referendum.”
And in response to Mr Starmer’s claims, she added: “This is similar to when I met the PM on Wednesday.
“She wanted to know where we could compromise but refused to indicate any compromise she might make. It is a bizarre approach from someone who made great play of wanting consensus.”
Nats’ Europe spokesman Stephen Gethins added: “Her proposal shows beyond doubt that she is putting the interests of her party above all else.”
Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie said: “It’s time for the Prime Minister to admit the best way to make this mess go away is a People’s Vote.”
In her 1,000-word letter to Mr Tusk, Mrs May said she was trying to break the deadlock and asking for the delay reluctantly.
She wrote: “The Government acknowledges that after approval to the Withdrawal Agreement is achieved, the process of enacting those commitments in domestic law and ratifying the agreement in the UK will take time.”
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She said the Government was making “responsible preparations” for European elections.
But the request sparked a furious row with the DUP, whose ten MPs prop up her minority Government.
DUP boss Arlene Foster branded her “disorganised and slapdash”.
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