Brexit news: Theresa May tells MPs to ‘get on with it’ as she turns up pressure on parliament to force through deal
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Your support makes all the difference.Theresa May has risked the anger of MPs after she blamed them for forcing her to ask the EU for a "short delay" to Brexit.
In a letter to European Council president Donald Tusk, the prime minister asked for a three-month extension to Article 50 negotiation process, pushing the scheduled date to leave the EU from 29 March to 30 June.
However Mr Tusk put his foot down, saying he would grant the delay but only if MPs backed Ms May's Brexit deal.
Some hours later Ms May used a televised address to accuse the Commons of having tried everything to avoid making a decision on whether it wanted to leave the block with a deal, crash out without one or not leave at all.
From Downing Street she told voters she was "on your side", adding that she believed "You're tired of the infighting, you're tired of the political games and the arcane procedural rows, tired of MPs talking about nothing else but Brexit when you have real concerns about our children's schools, our National Health Service, knife crime."
"You want this stage of the Brexit process to be over and done with. I agree," she said.
In response the PM was accused of being "toxic" and even of risking her colleagues' safety.
It meant that Ms May must now find a way of putting her deal before parliament for the third time, with no clear evidence that MPs will back it after twice voting it down by crushing margins.
If the deal fails again there is a significant chance she could resign, having told MPs earlier in the day she could not be the leader to impose a lengthy delay to Brexit.
See below how we covered the day's events live
From the Labour huddle after PMQs, it was confirmed that Jeremy Corbyn will travel to Brussels on Thursday to meet the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier.
He is also expected to hold talks with several EU 27 leaders as well as the EU Commission vice president Frans Timmermans and EU Commissioner Pierre Moscovici.
Mr Corbyn's spokesman said an extension to Article 50 was "inevitable" and that Labour believed a three-month delay was "appropriate".
"The key issue is what the purpose of the extension is and the PM is unable to say what her purpose is for the extension."
The spokesman said that the delay could be used to secure support for a compromise, adding: "We said that to achieve the kind of compromise and the alternative plan that we've been laying out and discussing with MPs from across the House, that would need to be done through amendments to the political declaration.
Things are looking bad for Theresa May, as even some of the more loyal MPs are questioning her future. Nigel Evans is a senior figure on the 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers, who represent the parliamentary party.
Our political editor Joe Watts has got hold of an interesting rumour - which has sent everyone in Westminster into a frenzy.
The French government is standing firm on Brexit, with the foreign minister Jean Yves Le Drian saying their message is clear - ratify the deal or leave without an agreement.
Reuters has snapped a few lines from him - saying If May cannot offer guarantees that parliament will pass it then the European Council will turn down her extension request.
It's also been written up here:
Also later, opposition leaders have been invited for talks at No10 with the PM and also to talks with David Lidington and Steve Barclay, the Brexit secretary. Both meetings have been scheduled for the same time - around 6pm.
It's all getting rather busy now - as European Council president Donald Tusk is going to make a statement at 4pm
Speaker John Bercow has granted a three-hour emergency debate on the Brexit extension to Sir Keir Starmer.
The shadow Brexit secretary says the delay is symptomatic of how the PM has dealt with Brexit, by keeping MPs at arms length. He tells the PM that she is the 'roadblock' to progress and urges her to seek a longer extension to find consensus.
"It is symptomatic of the way the Prime Minister's actually approached very many Brexit issues, which is to push parliament as far away as possible from the process."
He adds: "Given where we got to last week, ruling out no-deal, requiring the Prime Minister to seek an extension of Article 50, in the intervening days, one might have expected the Prime Minister to reflect on where we're at and to recognise ... that perhaps she is the road block to progress.
"She could, at this stage, act in the national interest and frankly show some leadership and take a responsible approach, which I think would be to seek an extension to prevent no-deal and provide time for parliament to find a majority for a different approach.
"I think many members are yearning for that opportunity to move forward and to break the impasse."
Starmer says the PM's letter shows to Donald Tusk just indicates that she wants to bring her own deal back for a third time - despite it being defeated twice already.
He also repeats David Lidington's comments from the other week - where he said the it was reckless to hold a short extension.
European Council president Donald Tusk is making a statement on his letter from Theresa May, which asks for article 50 to be extended to June 30.
He says he has spoken to May on the phone now. He says a short extension will be possible, but conditional on a positive vote on the deal the Commons.
He says June 30 date has its merits but it will be discussed tomorrow by European leaders.
"At this point I do not see a need for an extraordinary European Council," he says.
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