Brexit news - live: Tories fear 'absolute hammering' at EU election as party slumps to fifth place in new poll

Welcome to The Independent's politics liveblog, where we will be bringing you the latest from Westminster throughout the day.

Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson has said it would be "difficult" for his party to pass a Brexit deal without another referendum.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The difficulty is just parliamentary arithmetic and Keir Starmer (the shadow Brexit secretary) has alluded to this today as well, and John McDonnell did last week.

"The whipping arrangements for these deals is very difficult because MPs have hardened their positions within their parties so I think it would be very difficult."

Mr Watson continued: "If a deal could be found that inspires enough votes in Westminster then fine, but it seemed to me that that's very, very difficult.

"And so my idea of a confirmatory ballot is not a religious point or a point of ideology, it's just how do you get an outcome, how do you sort this out?

"And one way to do it are these two minority positions - the Prime Minister's deal and those that think the people should have a say on the deal - plug them together and you build a majority."

Tom Watson described Labour's Brexit stance ahead of the European elections as a "Remain and reform" party.

"We are remain and reform party but obviously when it comes to a deal people can form their own view," he told Today.

"But when it comes to that European election let me just say Remain is not on the ballot paper in that election."

Interesting...

His shadow cabinet colleague Richard Burgon said Labour "doesn't exist to stop Brexit" only a few days ago.

Keir Starmer has said up to 150 Labour MPs would vote against any cross-party Brexit deal which excluded a second referendum.

The Holborn and St Pancras MP has been involved in Labour’s Brexit talks with the government but said a deal which failed to include a confirmatory public vote was unlikely to pass in the Commons.

“A significant number of Labour MPs, probably 120 if not 150, would not back a deal if it hasn’t got a confirmatory vote,” he told The Guardian.

​More here:

Almost three-quarters of voters think the government has spent too much time on Brexit at the expense of addressing other important issues, a new poll had found.

The BMG survey for The Independent found that 74 per cent of voters thought ministers had “forgotten” about important domestic issues and focused too much attention on negotiating Britain’s EU withdrawal.

36 per cent said they strongly agreed with the suggestion, while a further 38 per cent somewhat agreed. 

Politics Explained: The unexpected elections are shaping up to be about only one thing, writes Lizzy Buchan.

Foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt has arrived at the EU's foreign affairs council and has given a brief clip to cameras. 

Asked about the cross-party negotiations with Labour aimed at breaking the Brexit deadlock, he said: "We are talking to the Labour leadership, and we have had very, very detailed discussions.

"People have been pessimistic right from the outset that these discussions weren't going to go anywhere, but they have actually continued.

"So we have to see what happens this week. This is a crunch week."

On the possibility of a second referendum on Brexit, Mr Hunt added: "From a Conservative point of view, we've always said that we think that would be a betrayal of what people voted for, and we want to implement the first referendum.

"But let's see where these talks go to."

The Conservatives have plummeted to fifth place in the latest poll ahead of the European elections, 24 points behind the buoyant Brexit Party.

The survey ahead of next week’s contest has the Tories on just 10 per cent, securing less backing than Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party.

However, Nigel Farage’s newly-formed Brexit Party was in the lead, which despite only being launched weeks ago was on 34 per cent in the YouGov poll for The Times.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, leader of the European Research Group (ERG) of Tories, appealed for disillusioned Conservatives to stick with the party for the sake of Theresa May's replacement in his LBC radio show this morning.

He said: "I would appeal to their loyalty, to their tradition and to say that the Conservative Party will get a new leader at some point.'

"We want that new leader to have a base on which he or she can build and if we find that we are getting under 15% of the vote, if we are coming fifth behind the Greens, then it will be harder for that figure to rebuild."

He acknowledged that the European elections "look as though they will be difficult" and people were "very enthusiastic" about the Brexit Party, whose candidates include Mr Rees-Mogg's sister, Annunziata.

Nigel Farage has been banned from his local pub after the landlord accused him of walking away from the scene of a head-on car crash.

The Brexit Party leader was being driven to a campaign event when his Range Rover collided with Patrick Tranter’s Jaguar on a narrow country lane in Kent.

Mr Tranter, who was with his one-year-old son, claimed the MEP quickly left without checking if anyone was hurt.