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1. Will the cross party talks get anywhere this week? No 10 trying to get Labour over the line by presenting withdrawal agreement as a 'stepping stone' - ie hold your nose for now and you can carve out your own deal if you win the next election
2. Key to that is promise of a 'temporary customs union' - Labour sources warn if that's all it is, that's what's already in the withdrawal agreement anyway plus a few months, and doesn't add up to anything substantially new
3. Senior govt source says it IS possible though to see a way to a deal, but unlikely to be resolved this week, and their aim is not to create some kind of May-Corbyn Rose Garden moment (imagine!) but to set out a path to get the Withdrawal Bill to Commons with a fair wind
4. Hope then to get the Bill to Committee stage where MP s would make decisions day by day - important to understand that's where Number 10 hopes this might be heading - maybe more a process to get sustainable buy in from Labour front bench than carving deal in stone
5. Clouds over May's leadership also make it harder by the day to get anything agreed - labour source says 'we are not just worried about this being ripped up in 2021, we're worried about it being ripped up in October 2019'
6. There is added momentum to talks today because Tories fresh from absolute hammering in council elex on Friday and Labour had terrible night too - but that bit of fresh impetus doesn't magic away the real problems they have to overcome if there's to be a deal
