Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn Consider Something New on Brexit: Cooperation – The New York Times

Boris Johnson, a former foreign secretary who quit the cabinet to protest a withdrawal he though was too soft, wrote on Twitter that the government had “concluded that any deal is better than no deal, and this is truly a very bad deal indeed — one that leaves us being run by the EU.”

Mrs. May’s outreach to Labour followed a marathon cabinet meeting on Tuesday that was, according to British news media reports, very contentious.

“Cabinet was not in favor of this,” Iain Duncan Smith, a former Conservative leader and former cabinet member, told the BBC on Wednesday. If the government tries, successfully or not, to work with Mr. Corbyn, he said, “they’ve legitimized him and that’s a real fear for many, many of us in the party.”

Parliament has defeated Mrs. May’s proposed deal with the bloc three times, by large margins. But it has also rejected, in a series of nonbinding votes, several alternatives put forward by members, leaving it unclear what approach could command majority support.

Mrs. May even offered to step down, allowing her party to select a new prime minister, if her deal won approval, but that gambit failed, too.