The government is refusing to budge on Labour’s central demand for a permanent customs union in cross-party talks on Brexit, according to Rebecca Long-Bailey, the shadow business secretary.

She also said the government’s plan to put May’s withdrawal agreement back before parliament without first reaching agreement with Labour was a “dangerous” stunt.

Long-Bailey, a key member of Labour’s negotiating team in the talks, said the issue of the customs union remained the key sticking point.

“In terms of the customs union, we’ve been repeatedly pushing them on this point, and they haven’t reached the position that we would like them to get to by any stretch at the moment,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday.

Asked if the government had moved at all on the issue, Long-Bailey said: “At the moment, no, they haven’t moved to the position that we need them to. And what worries us … is we also see letters from Tory MPs stating that they categorically shouldn’t support a customs union type arrangement.”

Long-Bailey was not asked whether Labour would support, or abstain on, the withdrawal agreement bill when it returned to parliament in the first week of June. Although she is considered the most pro-Brexit member of Labour’s negotiating team, she suggested the party was not ready to back it.

“It’s imperative that this is sorted out as quickly as possible,” she told BBC Breakfast. “And I think stunts and pushing things forward without consensus within parliament are very dangerous at this stage.”

She later told Today: “If it fails for a fourth time, I think people are very quickly going to start losing faith in our abilities as a parliament to be able to deal with this. So the government really needs to recognise this and very, very quickly.”

She said Labour was worried that whatever was agreed in the talks could be “ripped into pieces” by Theresa May’s successor.

Quick Guide Tory leadership contenders Show Jeremy Hunt His style is notably technocratic, with few rhetorical flourishes and an emphasis on his consensual approach and long record as a minister, notably during more than five years as health secretary, a traditional graveyard of ministerial careers. Hunt’s attempts to talk up a backstory as an 'underestimated' entrepreneur can fall flat given he is also the son of an admiral and was head boy at Charterhouse. Overall, Hunt’s approach can seem uninspiring and hard to pin down in terms of core beliefs, hence the 'Theresa in trousers' nickname among some Tory MPs – one that is more catchy than accurate (since May herself often wears trousers). In the final round of MP voting Hunt edged out Michael Gove, 77 votes to 75. Boris Johnson Johnson’s progress to Downing Street appeared unstoppable even before an overwhelming victory in the first round of voting among MPs. Most of his colleagues believe it is now all but inevitable that he will be Britain’s next prime minister. His well-disciplined campaign team will continue with their strategy of subjecting him to minimal media exposure, though once the field is narrowed down to two, the final pair will appear in more than a dozen head-to-head hustings for Tory members. The team’s main aim is simply to keep heads down and avoid Johnson creating headlines for the wrong reasons. It may not have worked. Johnson came first in the final round of MP voting with 160 votes.



Later on Thursday, May will face a showdown with members of the executive of the 1922 Committee of backbench Conservative MPs over their demand for a firm resignation date.

Before the meeting, the committee’s treasurer, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, told the Press Association: “It would be infinitely preferable if she set a date rather than us force her out. It’s better that she does it than we have a vote of confidence. What I would like to see is her set out a timetable to trigger a leadership contest.”

After May’s appearance before the committee, it will consider changes to the party’s leadership rules that currently prevent another leadership contest before December.

May’s former joint chief of staff Nick Timothy wrote in the Daily Telegraph that it was “beyond time” for her “to accept that the game is up”.

In order to avoid a “national humiliation” and save the Conservative party, Timothy said May must “do her duty and stand aside” rather than cling to power.