UK Brexit negotiator seeks changes to future EU relations - report
Britain's chief Brexit negotiator was reportedly travelling to Brussels on Tuesday to discuss changes to the political declaration on the UK's future relationship with the EU.
The BBC reported that Olly Robbins would meet EU officials to secure the change – demanded by the Labour opposition during cross-party talks aimed at breaking the Brexit impasse.
Meanwhile, senior Conservative MPs warned Prime Minister Theresa May against doing a deal with Labour, particularly over retaining a customs union with the EU after Britain leaves the bloc.
Labour negotiators want any deal struck with the government reflected in the non-binding political declaration, which sets out the framework for the future relationship between the UK and the EU and was published alongside Mrs May's withdrawal agreement.
Robbins was reportedly to see how fast changes could be made to the declaration if the government and Labour come to an agreement.
However, in London pressure was mounting on May to abandon the talks with Labour as 13 former cabinet ministers wrote a warning letter to her over the consequences of doing a deal.
The letter was also signed by Graham Brady, chairman of the Conservative Party's 1922 Committee, which represents the views of backbench MPs.
They said May would lose the support of Conservatives who backed her in March, and would not to gain enough Labour votes to pass, adding that is was “bad policy and bad politics”.
"More fundamentally, you would have lost the loyal middle of the Conservative Party, split our party and with likely nothing positive to show for it. No leader can [bind] his or her successor, so the deal would likely be at best temporary, at worst illusory," they wrote.
“We believe that a customs union-based deal with Labour will very likely lose the support of Conservative MPs like us who backed the withdrawal agreement in March (in many cases very reluctantly), and you would be unlikely to gain as many Labour MPs to compensate."