Theresa May last night told MPs to end their ‘political games’ and deliver Brexit.
With the UK just eight days from a No Deal departure, she went on live TV to condemn the Commons for failing to back her EU withdrawal agreement.
The Prime Minister will travel to Brussels today to ask for an extension until the end of June to try to get her plan through.
She said the delay to the planned March 29 exit date, which she had promised to keep more than 100 times in Parliament, was ‘a matter of great personal regret’.
With the UK just eight days from a No Deal departure, she went on live TV to condemn the Commons for failing to back her EU withdrawal agreement
She hinted she would rather quit or leave with No Deal than allow delay ‘to give more time for politicians to argue’.
Donald Tusk had raised the stakes by warning an extension to Article 50 would be agreed only if MPs approved her deal. This opened up the possibility that the UK could leave without a deal next Friday.
Nearly three years have passed since the public voted to leave the European Union. I came to office on a promise to deliver on that verdict.
In March 2017, I triggered the Article 50 process for the UK. Two years on, MPs have been unable to agree on a way to implement the UK’s withdrawal, as a result we will now not leave on time with a deal on March 29.
This delay is a matter of great personal regret for me. You the public have had enough. You want this stage of the Brexit process to be over and done with. I agree, I am on your side.
So today I have written to Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, to request a short extension of Article 50 up to June 30, to give MPs the time to make the final choice.
Do they want to leave the EU with a deal? Do they want to leave without a deal? Or do they not want to leave at all? It is high time we made the decision.
So far Parliament has done everything possible to avoid making a choice. All MPs have been willing to say is what they do not want.
But I am not prepared to delay Brexit any further than June 30.
Some argue that I am making the wrong choice and that I should ask for a longer extension to the end of the year or beyond to give more time for politicians to argue over the way forward.
That would mean asking you to vote in European elections nearly three years after our country decided to leave. What kind of message would that send?
Some have suggested holding a second referendum. I don’t believe that is what you want and it is not what I want. You want us to get on with it and that is what I am determined to do.
‘I believe that a short extension would be possible,’ said Mr Tusk, who is president of the European Council.
‘But it would be conditional on a positive vote on the withdrawal agreement in the House of Commons.’
He said the hopes of a deal now seemed ‘frail, even illusory’ but said the EU would not give up. He suggested an emergency Brussels summit could be held at the end of next week, just hours before Britain is due to leave, to consider offering the UK a much longer extension – at a price.
Government sources last night indicated Mrs May would make a third – and probably final – attempt to persuade MPs to approve her deal next week, possibly as soon as
