The Prime Minister presented his latest Brexit proposals to the EU on Wednesday in a bid to replace the controversial backstop protocol agreed by Brussels and Theresa May. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn claimed “no Labour MP could support” Boris Johnson’s deal and pledged to defeat the Prime Minister in the Commons once again and force him to ask for an extension on October 19. But the “seemingly veiled threat” issued by the Labour leader – as described by BBC’s Patrick Burns – might be defied by some of his MPs who believe the best way to avoid a no deal scenario is to agree to a deal rather than force an extension.

Confronted with the idea, Labour MP Gareth Snell told the BBC he would be prepared to vote for a deal “supported by Europe” and that “satisfies both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland”.

He added: “Well, look, the deal is the best chance we have of stopping no deal.

“And ultimately, the biggest threat to jobs, to employment, to standards in this country is a no deal Brexit.

“I worked with a group of Labour MPs to amend the so-called Benn Act to say that if we are in a position where the deal that the Prime Minister puts forwards fails – either because Europe won’t accept it or because Parliament won’t accept it – then any extension can only be used to find a deal that is acceptable.

The deal is the best chance we have of stopping no deal

Gareth Snell

“Because I do believe that we have to leave the European Union but we’ve got to do that in an orderly way that doesn’t decimate our local economies.”

Shadow attorney-general Shami Chakrabarti said it was important to see what Mr Johnson’s deal might look like, and that Parliament must be able to scrutinise his proposals – though said his current plan “cannot get through”.

She said, however, that if a deal was approved by Dublin and Brussels, it would be something that would be “more likely” to pass Labour’s tests.

It comes as Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay said the Government had been “talking to Members of Parliament across the House because I think many Members of Parliament want to avoid no deal”.

“And particularly those Members of Parliament in Leave constituencies who have voted against no-deal and voted against a deal three times, then they will need to be able to address this issue when they return to their electorate,” he told BBC’s Andrew Marr.

However, Labour’s Lisa Nandy – who represents Leave-backing Wigan – said that while she could support a deal, the “problem is at the moment, we don’t have a deal”.

“What we’ve got is a proposal which stands virtually no chance of being accepted by the EU which creates two borders on the island of Ireland which is completely incompatible with existing international law and which rips up the workers’ rights and protections and the environmental protections that we spent several months at the start of this year negotiating with the former prime minister,” she told Sky News.

“I would vote for a deal, but this is not a deal.

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“This is a pre-election party-political broadcast from the Prime Minister, and the truth is that for all of the talk about getting Brexit done, we are further away from achieving a deal than we were two months ago when he became Prime Minister.”

Irish premier Leo Varadkar gave a glimmer of hope to Mr Johnson as he said a deal could be secured in the next two weeks, but cautioned the current proposals do not form the basis for “deeper negotiations”.

Describing his blueprint for an agreement as a “practical compromise that gives ground where necessary”, Mr Johnson said it represents the UK “jumping to the island in the middle of the river”.

Writing in the Sun on Sunday, he added: “If we’re to leave with a deal, we now need the EU to jump over from its side and join us there, showing its own willingness to do a deal that the UK Parliament can support.”

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