Theresa May will head to Brussels tomorrow for a crucial Brexit showdown withut a deal to present to EU leaders after talks with Labour today ended without agreement.
Senior figures including Chancellor Philip Hammond and his counterpart John McDonnell met at the Cabinet Office for discussions on a deal which would include a 'Stop Boris' mechanism.
This measure, demanded by Labour, would prevent the Prime Minister's successor - with Boris Johnson the frontrunner - from easily unpicking any soft Brexit deal once it has been passed.
Speaking in Whitehall after talks lasting more than three hours today, shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey said: 'There's not really been any fundamental shift or a change in position of the deal itself. But we're hopeful that progress will be made.
'We're continuing discussions with the Government over the coming days.'
Environment Secretary Michael Gove, who also attended, said there had been 'constructive' discussions, but added: 'There are number of issues where we differ, but we are anxious to ensure that we can carry on with this process.'
More talk are planned for Thursday, when Theresa May is due to return from an emergency European Council summit where EU leaders are expected to dismiss her request for a short delay to Brexit until June and keep us in until the end of the year.
A Downing Street spokesman said: 'We have had further productive and wide-ranging talks this afternoon, and the parties have agreed to meet again on Thursday once European Council has concluded.
'We remain completely committed to delivering on Brexit, with both sides working hard to agreeing a way forward, appreciating the urgency in order to avoid European elections.'
Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey (pictured right leaving the meeting) said that there had 'not really been any fundamental shift or a change in position of the deal itself' but said talks would continue on Thursday
Theresa May arriving in Paris this afternoon for talks with French president Emmanuel Macron, having arrived from Berlin talks with German chancellor Angela Merkel
Environment Secretary Michael Gove, who attended the London meeting to discuss environmental standards, said: 'There are number of issues where we differ'
Mr McDonnell had earlier said Labour was actively seeking a way to stop a Brexit deal being unpicked by a hardline future Tory leader like Boris Johnson.
Speaking before he joined the talks the shadow chancellor revealed that discussions would include how to 'secure any deal that comes forward in the long term'.
He told reporters in Westminster that they were seeking a so-called 'Boris Lock' be introduced 'in the light of statements over the last week that any softer Brexit deal would be overturned or reversed.
He told reporters: 'It's been raised twice now in the meetings so this is the third occasion it is being raised, simply saying assurances given so far around this don't seem to meet what we are aiming for, given a climate that has created as a result of statements by the Attorney General (Geoffrey Cox), Boris Johnson - a potential leadership candidate, God help us - and then also Jacob Rees-Mogg obviously speaking on behalf of the ERG (European Research Group).
'So some of that discussion that will take place will be about how any deal is secure for the long-term and how best to secure that through either domestic legislation or treaty.'
As well as the Boris Lock talks today was also due to focus on a customs union, and environmental and workers rights.
But in comments that will fan the flames of Labour's internal row over Brexit, Mr McDonnell said that a confirmatory referendum was also due to be discussed but there might not be time to do so.
'It is on the agenda, whether we reach it we will see,' he said.
As well as the Chancellor and Michael Gove, de-facto deputy PM David Lidington, Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay, Business Secretary Greg Clark and Chief Whip Julian Smith were involved in the talks.
Mr McDonnell (far right) arrived for talks this lunchtime with fellow Labour frontbenchers (right to left) Rebecca Long-Bailey, Sir Keir Starmer and Sue Hayman
Talks will include ways to secure any softer Brexit deal against being unpicked by a hardline Brexiteer future Prime Minister, with Boris Johnson (pictured today) among the frontrunners
Earlier a senior Cabinet minister had warned Theresa May that any plan to offer a customs union with the EU as a way to break the Brexit deadlock would be the 'worst of both worlds'.
International Trade Secretary Liam Fox - whose role would be largely redundant if the UK stayed closely aligned to Brussels - hit out in a letter to senior backbench Tories.
Dr Fox, a Brexiteer who has faithfully backed the Prime Minister's ill-faited Brexit deal, laid out his opposition in a brutally blunt letter revealed by the Daily Telegraph.
But Mr McDonnell said that there had been 'no movement' on a customs union so far.
It came as Theresa May conducted high levels talks with Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel in Paris and Berlin, amid anger at the direction of Brexit from eurosceptic hardliners in her own party and Cabinet.
Mrs May's reported offer to let MPs vote on holding a second referendum has infuriated MPs already raging over the fact that she is talking to the opposition at all, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Writing to the committee of the 1922 Committee, Dr Fox said: 'We would be stuck in the worst of both worlds, not only unable to set our own international trade policy but subject, without representation, to the policy of an entity over which MPs would have no democratic control.
'This is something that Labour do not presently seem to understand. As I said at the meeting, in such a scenario the UK would have a new role in the global trading system.
'We would ourselves be traded. As the famous saying in Brussels goes, if you are not at the table, you are on the menu.'
In a further escalation of a Brexiteer revolt, Trade Secretary Liam Fox (pictured yesterday in Downing Street) wrote to Tory MPs to insist a permanent customs union with the EU would be the 'worst of both worlds'
Theresa May arrived in Berlin this morning for crucial Brexit talks with chancellor Angela Merkel. She will go to Paris for talks with president Emmanuel Macron this afternoon
Labour's Jo Stevens MP, a supporter of the People's Vote campaign, said: 'Liam Fox's letter shows why it is essential that any alternative Brexit deal is subject to full Parliamentary scrutiny and not simply rammed through the House of Commons to meet an arbitrary deadline.
'There must be no Westminster stitch-up on a decision so important to the country's future.'
Hard left Labour leader Mr Corbyn has called on the Government to be more flexible regarding red line issues in the talks.
But so far he has resisted strong calls from backbenchers and members of his shadow cabinet to demand a second referendum as the price of his support for the Government.
Senior backbench Tories visited Mrs May in Downing Street on Monday and it is understood concern was expressed about the possibility of agreeing to a customs union as a price for a deal with Labour.
And in Tuesday's Daily Telegraph, Tory grandee William Hague said the talks were 'akin to having a dinner date with a crocodile'.
Lord Hague wrote: 'It is difficult in any case to see how carrying through the programme of Brexit procedures and laws could be sustained by an agreement between part of the Conservative Party and the bulk of the Labour Party - the Government would be highly likely to collapse under such a strain.''
An aide to Chancellor Philip Hammond defied the Tory whips by addressing a People's Vote campaign event today.
Huw Merriman, 45, spoke at the Remainer event in London despite previously acknowledging it could cost him his Treasury post.
The parliamentary private secretary and MP for Bexhill and Battle in Sussex - who backs Theresa May's Brexit deal - said he wanted to use the event to explain why he supported a confirmatory referendum on the agreement in last week's 'indicative' votes in the Commons.
That had been a free vote so while he avoided censure for doing it he said he was now in the strange position of facing the sack for speaking about it.
He took to the stage alongside speakers including his former Tory colleague turned Change UK MP Anna Soubry, and Labour's David Lammy and Baroness Boothroyd.
Tory former ministers Dominic Grieve and Sam Gyimah also addressed the crowd.
Mr Merriman told the audience that it was 'seriously wrong' that he had been threatened with the sack if he explained to them why he now supported a second referendum.
He said that he first voted to Remain but now supports Brexit after voters won the referendum.
But he explained he wants a fresh vote in order to 'get this country through the mess we are currently in'.
'Parliament has failed. Parliament cannot make its mind up. There is no majority in Parliament for any one thing,' he said.
'So if I'm true to that view that I want to deliver what the majority voted for the last time then that leads me here to a confirmatory vote.
'It's time now to bump this over the line, ask the people to do the job that Parliament should do but can't and bring on a People's Vote.'
Treasury aide Huw Merriman will speak at a People's Vote event today, saying that if it led to his sacking it would be the 'politics of the madhouse'
Philip May looked pensive as he waved off his wife on her European tour as she tries to delay Brexit yet again
The Prime Minister is hoping that her cross-party talks with Labour will convince EU leaders to give her a short extension to Article 50 at a summit in Brussels in Wednesday, before Britain leaves the bloc with No Deal by default on Friday.
However the discussions with Jeremy Corbyn do not appear to be making any progress and EU leaders are growing tired of repeated extension requests.
They are preparing to impose a long delay to Brexit until around March 2020, are fearful that a new Brexiteer Prime Minister, such as Boris Johnson, could cause havoc within the EU during this time.
To counter this threat, the EU will 'Boris-proof' any Brexit delay and refuse to let the UK have any say in future EU budget talks and trade deals until Britain leaves, it was revealed today.
An EU diplomat told The Times: 'If there is a wild Brexiteer as a new Tory PM, they would be able to do nothing until after March 31, 2020, unless they subscribe to the withdrawal agreement. We will simply not hold talks. If a new British leader refuses these terms it will simply be 'no deal' on the date with plenty of time for us to prepare.'
With the country headed for a lengthy Brexit delay, senior cabinet member Andrea Leadsom has gone rogue by urging Mrs May to beg Angela Merkel to re-open the Brexit deal and change the Irish backstop - which the PM and the EU has repeatedly said is impossible.
She said: 'I think would be fantastic is if Angela Merkel will try to support a proper UK Brexit by agreeing to reopen the withdrawal agreement. There have been rumours over the weekend that some senior members of the German government would be willing to do that in order to get Theresa May's deal over the line'.
Theresa May fired the starting gun on Britain's participation in the European Parliament elections last night. Government officials formally triggered the elections for May 23 – at an estimated cost to the taxpayer of £108million – while the Tories launched a search for candidates.
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News Photo May's cross-party talks with Labour fail to reach an agreement ahead of EU summit
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