Brexit news - live: EU leaders agree to extend Article 50 until end of October
Live updates from Westminster and Brussels
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Your support makes all the difference.European leaders agreed to grant another extension to Britain’s membership of the EU at an emergency summit on Wednesday night, offering the UK a delay to its departure date until Halloween – 31 October.
Theresa May travelled to Brussels where she pleaded with EU leaders to delay Brexit until 30 June, rather than see the UK crash out without deal on Friday.
Most EU leaders appeared ready to back Donald Tusk’s proposal of a longer delay, but a decision was held up by French President Emmanuel Macron, who insisted on “no long extension”.
Here’s how the day unfolded:
Conservative Brexiter Daniel Kawczynski swerves Brexit and asks about school funding. He says local schools in his Shropshire constituency do worse than in London.
May responds by pointing to the school funding formula.
Another Brexiteer Theresa Villiers asks about police cuts in her Barnet constituency.
May seems to be avoiding Brexiteer anger so far.
Finally a Brexit question - Tory MP Henry Smith says a long Brexit delay will cost £1bn to taxpayers and shouldn't that money be spent on other things?
May says the UK could have left the EU by now if MPs backed her deal. She's doing her best to deliver on Brexit.
Green MP Caroline Lucas says young people will be protesting about the climate emergency on Friday. The PM is the only party leader who has not welcomed it.
Will May meet them and discuss their concerns?
May says she does meet young people and praises a school in her own constituency for their environmental efforts.
Scots Tory MP David Duguid says it is vital to leave the Commons Fisheries Policy after Brexit. Is May still fighting for that?
May says her deal respects that and she is committed to delivering on it.
↵
And that's it for PMQs for the week.
We will be providing you with some snap analysis now.
Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live about Theresa May's future in Downing Street, the justice secretary David Gauke claimed she could remain prime minister for another year.
He said: "I very much hope so because the point here is she has said that if we can get through phase one... and that we leave the EU, she has made it clear that she will then leave as leader of the Conservative Party and the PM, and be replaced by someone who would then negotiate phase two."
"If we can't get phase one dealt with, then if we are still in middle of negotiations, if there is still considerable uncertainty, then I think you have to look at the particular circumstances there and it may well be the case that the last thing we need as a country is a leadership election at that point.
"The right thing would be for Theresa as prime minister to continue to get this process done.
"I don't think we should be rushing to change our leader when there is a big task to be done."
With the UK now set to take part in the European elections on 22 May, attention is now turning to how each party could perform.
According to a new poll, Labour is set to do well next month and potentially well enough to hand the European Commission presidency back to continent's centre-left, reports our Europe Correspondent Jon Stone.
Brexiteers in the UK are already furious at the mere prospect of the British public taking part in such elections, but if socialists emerge victorious in said vote, expect their levels of rage to raise a notch.
After prime minister's questions, a Downing Street source told reporters Ms May would make the case for a short extension to Article 50 in Brussels this evening.
"It remains the case that we are seeking a short extension so that we don't have to participate in the European elections and so that we can deliver on the vote of the referendum promptly, and that is the case that you can expect her to make to European leaders later today," they said.
Jeremy Corbyn's spokesman also told a briefing that the government found it "pretty difficult" to move off their red lines in cross-party Brexit talks seeking to break the impasse.
He said: "There is still serious engagement and exploration of new and different elements, and yesterday's talks expanded the frame to include new areas."
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