Britain’s government has been forced to talk to Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn to save Brexit, Andrea Leadsom, its leader in the House of Commons, said on Sunday, suggesting ministers were ready to compromise with the opposition leader.

“Specifically provided we are leaving the European Union then it is important that we compromise, that’s what this is about and it is through gritted teeth. But nevertheless the most important thing is to actually leave the EU,” she told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show.

She suggested that Prime Minister Theresa May’s proposal for a customs arrangement with the EU after Brexit was not too far from Labour’s insistence on a customs union.