Downing Street has admitted Brexit talks are "deadlocked" just one day before a crucial meaningful vote in the House of Commons.

On Tuesday, Theresa May will again table her deal for leaving the European Union for a meaningful vote, but some of her MPs are warning she faces another three-figure defeat, potentially replicating January's failure in the House.

Conservative Brexiteers have said rejection of the deal again is "inevitable", as Downing St confessed there have been no changes to the withdrawal agreement since Mrs May returned to Brussels for talks.

The prime minister's office said the two sides were "deadlocked".

PM warned Brexit defeat 'inevitable'

Senior Conservatives are said to be advising Mrs May to delay her vote and set out a "conditional" motion instead, which would outline the terms for dealing with the backstop issue which parliament would be prepared to accept.


The backstop refers to a customs plan to avoid a "hard" border between Ireland and Northern Ireland if a Brexit deal is not reached. It is currently one of the biggest sticking points in Mrs May's deal.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, chairman of the European Research Group (ERG), told The Times: "I think a meaningful vote with an addendum saying this House will support a deal if such and such is done might be a way of uniting the party or limiting the scale of the defeat."

Image: Michael Gove urged MPs to back the PM's deal

Former chief whip Andrew Mitchell told the paper: "Anything that avoids what looks like a massive defeat is worth considering."

Mrs May got some support from her cabinet minister Michael Gove though, who encouraged MPs to vote for the deal.

Writing in the Daily Mail on Monday, Mr Gove said: "I hope that everyone who believes in our democracy - in the importance of delivering Brexit, but also in the critical need to unite our country - will come behind the Prime Minister's deal this week."

Mrs May spent the weekend chatting to EU leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Downing Street says discussions with the EU are "ongoing".

The prime minister finds herself caught, with the option of delaying her meaningful vote only slightly less embarrassing than potentially suffering a second huge defeat.

After Tuesday's meaningful vote, MPs will vote on Wednesday on whether the UK should leave the EU without any deal, and then Thursday on whether there should be an extension of the Article 50 withdrawal process.

The government triggered the Article 50 process, which is the clause allowing nations to leave the EU, on 29 March 2017, giving two years to come up with a deal before exiting. The UK is now less than three weeks from the leaving the EU.

:: Theresa May warned another Brexit defeat in the Commons is 'inevitable'

Shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer said the Labour Party would not be putting down an amendment on a second referendum on Tuesday, because the day should be about defeating Mrs May's deal, suggesting there would be more opportunities to table the amendments.

Sir Keir Starmer said a delay is doable

Calls for Mrs May to postpone the vote came after former cabinet minister Nicky Morgan warned that the prime minister's position may become untenable if parliament "dismantled" her deal.

Mrs Morgan had told BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend: "I think that her position is going to become slowly less and less tenable as parliament changes the government's Brexit policy.

"If the votes go this week in a way which means that the prime minister's policy as she has set out and stuck to rigidly over the course of the last two-and-a-bit a years is taken away, dismantled slowly by parliament this week, I think it would be very difficult for the prime minister to stay in office for very much longer."

There were reports that a plane was on standby at RAF Northolt to fly her to Brussels, but Leo Varadkar and Michel Barnier attended Ireland's Six Nations match on Sunday afternoon rather than continue any talks.