Philip Hammond tells Theresa May to listen to Jeremy Corbyn over Brexit as Remainer Chancellor says ‘no red lines’ in Labour talks
Chancellor Philip Hammond said he wanted the Government to go into talks with an 'open mind'
PHILIP Hammond today urged Theresa May to listen to Jeremy Corbyn over Brexit as crunch national unity talks collapsed overnight.
The pro-EU Chancellor said the Government should go into discussions with Labour with “an open mind” to hash out a Brexit deal.
It comes after the talks collapsed last night with no sign of a breakthrough and Labour blamed Mrs May for refusing to budge.
In a move that will anger Brexiteers, the pro-EU Chancellor urged the PM to have “no red lines” when it came to hammering out a compromise.
At a meeting of EU finance ministers in Bucharest, he said: “We should be open to listen to suggestions that others have made.
“Some people in the Labour Party are making other suggestions to us, of course we have to be prepared to discuss them.
“Our approach to these discussions with Labour is that we have no red lines, we will go into these talks with an open mind and discuss everything with them in a constructive fashion.”
Our approach to these discussions with Labour is that we have no red lines
Philip Hammond
The Sun understands that Labour are refusing to come back to the table unless the Tories agree Britain should stay in the EU customs union after Brexit.
That would breach one of Mrs May’s biggest red lines – and enrage Tory MPs because it would stop Britain striking its own trade deals.
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.
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”.
The Sun Says — Time for Texit
WHATEVER Brexit brings next week, Theresa May must have her bags packed for her own exit.
This paralysed, demoralised Government is in dire need of a new leader, a new Chancellor, new Cabinet, new ideas and new energy.
The country needs it. So do Tory voters, members and donors.
Some would argue the party is already lost. That its current civil war leads inevitably to the permanent fracture over Europe that was long predicted.
The prospect has Corbynistas salivating. We’re not so sure.
Yes, it looks dire. But Britain isn’t Marxist. It just doesn’t want a Corbyn Government. Why else would Magic Grandpa still be trailing this shambolic bunch in most polls?
He will only win power if the Tories implode, split, and gift it to him.
But the healing process cannot happen under Mrs May.
If she somehow pulls together a Brexit compromise with Corbyn, and if it passes in the Commons — two big ifs, we admit — her job is done, Britain will leave the EU. She can then resign, as she promised ten days ago she would.
But if every option fails and we are forced into a long, humiliating Brexit delay lasting months or — God forbid — longer, she must go even more rapidly.
Both scenarios will enrage her party.
Mrs May cannot possibly stay in place.
The PM has done her duty, done her best. Plenty besides her deserve their share of blame for this fiasco.
But whatever happens, and as The Sun said nearly a fortnight ago, time is up.
Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said: “We engaged in these talks in good faith. Keir Starmer has written to the Government to say he wants to continue the talks, so in that sense they are going on.
“There is concern that the Government doesn’t want to alter the Political Declaration.”
The collapse of talks could undermine the PM’s chances of securing a Brexit delay from Brussels because EU leaders insist she must present a plan for how to use the extra time.
The Government was locked in three days of negotiations with Mr Corbyn’s top team in order to get a deal which can make it through the Commons next week.
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.
Downing Street scrambled to try to resuscitate the negotiations.
A spokesman said: “We have made serious proposals in talks this week and are prepared to pursue changes to the political declaration in order to deliver a deal that is acceptable to both sides.
“We are ready to hold further detailed discussions this weekend to seek any such changes in the run-up to European Council on Wednesday.
Appearing on ITV’s Peston this week, the Chancellor suggested he may support a “confirmatory referendum” pitting the PM’s Brexit deal against Remain after the Commons voted to force a delay to Brexit.
He said: “I’ve said it’s a perfectly credible proposition.
“Some ideas have been put forward which are not deliverable, they are not negotiable but the confirmatory referendum idea, many people will disagree with it, I’m not sure there is a majority in Parliament for it but it’s a perfectly credible proposition and it deserves to be tested in Parliament.”
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368. You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.