Brexit: Theresa May under pressure to consider Brexit delay

Theresa May is facing growing calls to say she would delay Brexit rather than leave the EU if no deal is in place by the end of March.

A new plan from some Tory MPs suggests ministers postpone Brexit until 23 May “to conclude negotiations”.

It is being suggested as an alternative to cross-party proposals which would see MPs take control of the process.

Dutch PM Mark Rutte warned Mrs May the UK was “sleepwalking into a no-deal scenario” and needed to “wake up”.

The pair met at a summit in Egypt, as she presses EU leaders for more concessions to her deal.

Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar described a no-deal Brexit as a “lose-lose-lose scenario for everyone”, but he told reporters ahead pf the meeting with Mrs May that he thought the outcome was unlikely.

Mrs May announced on Sunday that MPs will get a fresh vote on her deal by 12 March, vowing that leaving as planned 17 days later was “within our grasp”.

But many MPs had wanted another so-called “meaningful vote” sooner than that, and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn suggested Mrs May was “running down the clock” until a time when MPs were forced “to choose between her bad deal and a disastrous no deal”.

Mrs May’s announcement also provoked disappointment among business leaders, who are clamouring for certainty about what is to come.

The prime minister had a “good, friendly” 45-minute meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the sidelines of the EU-League of Arab States summit in Sharm-el-Sheikh.

A government official said they discussed Brexit, among other things, and the issue of extending Article 50 came up “fleetingly”. But they said Mrs May reiterated that the UK wanted to leave the EU with a deal on the scheduled date of 29 March.

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker also met the PM and said they had a “good, constructive” meeting.

President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, said he had also discussed a “potential extension” to Article 50 when he met the PM on Monday, but he said it was “absolutely clear” to him that there was no majority in the House of Commons to approve any deal.

“We will face an alternative, chaotic Brexit or an extension,” he said.

“The less time there is until 29 March, the greater the likelihood of an extension, and this is an objective fact – not our intention, not our plan, but an objective fact.”

He said an extension would be a “rational solution” but that Mrs May told him “she still believes she is able to avoid this scenario.”

There will be further talks in Brussels on Tuesday on the Northern Ireland backstop – the number one sticking point for many when it comes to the Brexit deal.

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