Theresa May is poised to play for time by further postponing a final vote on her Brexit deal next week.

The Prime Minister's aides are believed to be drawing up a plan to make MPs' approval of the deal conditional on the European Union providing further concessions.

The move is intended to help limit the scale of opposition to the vote, while buying time amid ongoing negotiations with European Union leaders.

A Whitehall source said that while the "tone" of conversations between Downing Street and Brussels had improved since mid-December, the two sides remained "far apart" on what each were prepared to accept.

Separately, The Sunday Telegraph discloses today that Ian Lavery, the Labour chairman, has publicly described the campaign for a second referendum on Brexit as "disrespectful" because voters already opted to leave.

Meanwhile, it can be revealed that the October march organised by the People's Vote was attended by just a third of the number that its organisers claimed, according to an internal estimate by the Greater London Authority.