Theresa May is hoping to win the support of Labour MPs for her Brexit deal by backing key guarantees on workers’ and environmental rights.

The Mirror understands the Government is likely to support an amendment put down by Labour MPs who could be open to backing her in the crunch vote next week.

As many as 20 Labour MPs, most of them with Leave voting seats, could rally behind the Prime Minister’s plan if she throws Downing Street’s weight behind the move.

Bassetlaw MP John Mann told the Mirror that the amendment would make Mrs May’s deal “more attractive” and tackle key Labour concerns.

Caroline Flint, MP for Don Valley, added: “Given the government cannot rely on the hard Brexiteers on their side, they have to reach out across the House to Labour.”

Earlier, Shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer told MPs he had been surprised the Government had not approached him. “I actually thought at some point somebody would give me a ring,” he said.

It came after another day of high drama in the Commons during which the PM suffered her second crushing defeat on Brexit in 24 hours.

A cross-party group of MPs backed a rebel amendment, by 308 votes to 297, to force Mrs May to come back before them within three days to set out her Brexit Plan B if she loses Tuesday’s vote.

Downing Street admitted publicly for the first time that Mrs May was now planning for what happens next if she is defeated in her ‘meaningful’ vote on Brexit.

Ministers also offered new assurances to MPs that they would have more control of the controversial backstop if they backed her deal.

It came as Commons Speaker John Bercow was embroiled in a furious row with Tory Brexiteers in which he was forced to deny being biased against the Government.

He was accused of flouting Commons convention to allow the amendment from rebel Tory Dominic Grieve, designed to prevent the PM running down the clock towards no deal.

The Speaker refused to say if the Commons clerk – an expert in parliamentary rules – backed his decision, and refused to publish advice given to him over the move.

No 10 sources said she planned to respond to any defeat immediately. Any new plan from Mrs May could then be amended by MPs – putting them in control of the Brexit process.

However, the Government was pulling out all the stops to try to limit the scale of defeat.

The Labour backbenchers’ amendment, tabled by Mr Mann, Ms Flint and Stoke Central MP Gareth Snell, would guarantee that the Government would enshrine existing EU protections into British law after Brexit. 

It would also mean that if Brussels strengthened those rights in future, MPs could decide whether to adopt the same standards.

The protection of workers’ rights, health and safety, environmental protections are all key Jeremy Corbyn demands. One of Labour’s six tests on which it has judged the Brexit deal is: "Does it defend rights and protections and prevent a race to the bottom?"

If the amendment is selected by the Speaker, Business Secretary Greg Clark is expected to announce that the Government will support it.

Ms Flint said: “It’s about making sure we protect what we’ve got, but also making sure that MPs are able to take back control if the EU strengthens rights and protections in those areas.”

The former minister, who has previously suggested that dozens of Labour MPs could rebel against Jeremy Corbyn to back the PM’s deal as long as it is “reasonable”, said she hoped the Labour frontbench would back the proposal.

“I would hope this would get their full support because it’s one of the key points that has been made by the Labour in terms of how do you define a good deal.”

She added that there were “a lot of other issues” around the PM’s Brexit plan that still had to be resolved before she was prepared to support it.

But she added: “It doesn’t mean it’s the end of the debate.”

Mr Mann admitted that the amendment would improve what Mrs May had offered on Brexit.

“Does this make this deal more attractive if this goes through? Yes, it certainly does,” he said.“There are going to be other things as well needed, but this is one very significant one.”

He added: “It’s very encouraging if Government is listening to what the people are saying but also it removes one of Labour’s objections.

“In terms of trade unions, this is the big issue, along with jobs – that’s why unions have been very hostile to a no-deal.

“The second is guarantees for workers’ rights and conditions. If we have a guarantee that works on workers’ rights and conditions, then that’s very significant.”

The Government’s seven-page long blueprint for our future relationship with the EU, published in November, only briefly mentions that Brussels and the UK are "determined to work together" to safeguard workers’ rights and environmental protections – but is not binding. 

This means there are no legal guarantees that everyday rights will continue in areas like paid holidays, rights for part-time workers, time off for working parents, equal pay for women and limits in working hours. Or, if standards in the EU rise, they will in the UK too. 

The Government also confirmed it was accepting an amendment by Tory backbencher Hugo Swire which would give MPs the power to veto the Irish backstop and a transition extension in 2020. It would also limit the backstop to just 12 months.

A No 10 insider said: “This is not a silver bullet but this gives Parliament the opportunity to say loud and clear this is not an option we’re happy with and we’ll have to find another way through.”

But they insisted that the UK would still meet its international obligations to the EU by some other route if MPs decided to assert their sovereignty.

The DUP, which props up the Tory’s fragile Government, put another obstacle in the PM’s path by rejecting her compromise plan before they it even published.

The hardline party said that her reassurances over the controversial backstop to avoid a hard border did not go far enough.

Brexit spokesman Sammy Wilson said: “The only deal that could swing round the DUP is if the backstop as it applied to the UK as a whole or to NI specifically were removed from this agreement.”

Meanwhile, Tory former minister Nick Boles revealed he had received a death threat for the first time since joining a Tory rebellion against a no deal Brexit.

He told the BBC that “sad cowards with nothing better to do” had made the threat after he joined forces with Labour to inflict another defeat on the PM last night.

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