LONDON, March 21 — Asset managers and other financial firms from the European Union have only a week to register with UK regulators to continue operating in Britain in the event of a no-deal Brexit, a senior regulator said today.

British Prime Minister Theresa May is in Brussels today in a bid to seek a short extension to the scheduled March 29 Brexit Day.

Nausicaa Delfas, executive director of international at the Financial Conduct Authority, said notifications from EU firms who want to continue serving UK customers must be received by March 28, the eve of Britain’s scheduled departure from the bloc.

Delfas said over 1,000 EU financial firms have notified the watchdog that they want to make use of Britain’s “temporary permissions regime”.

This allows them to continue operating in Britain for up to three years if Britain fails to secure a Brexit deal with Brussels, giving them time to apply for a new licence.

UK regulators have said that 8,000 “passports” are held by inbound or EU firms operating in the UK, meaning there are more applications likely in coming days.

“Notifications must be submitted by the end of 28 March 2019, just a week away,” Delfas told a conference in London. — Reuters</s>Britain could leave the European Union without a Brexit deal on April 12 if lawmakers fail next week to back Prime Minister Theresa May's agreement with Brussels, EU leaders said after a crisis summit in Brussels on Thursday.

With just a week to go until Britain risks lurching out into legal limbo at midnight (2300 GMT) next Friday, EU leaders gave May an extra two months, until May 22, to leave if she wins next week's vote in parliament. But she failed to convince the other 27 that she would succeed, prompting a frantic seven hours of talks to find a way to get Britain out without seeming to push.

The conclusion was a deal that suggested that Britain could, if May fails, come back and ask for a much longer delay. But this would be on the condition -- likely a major stumbling block -- that it takes part in elections to the new EU parliament on May 23. For it to do so, British election law says that would have to be announced six weeks beforehand, by April 12.

If it does not call an EU election, Britain will be out.

"The European Council agrees to an extension until 22 May 2019, provided the Withdrawal Agreement is approved by the House of Commons next week," the statement said.

"If the Withdrawal Agreement is not approved by the House of Commons next week, the European Council agrees to an extension until 12 April 2019 and expects the United Kingdom to indicate a way forward before this date for consideration by the European Council."

Get the latest election news, live updates and election schedule for Lok Sabha Elections 2019 on ndtv.com/elections. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and Instagram for updates from each of the 543 parliamentary seats for the 2019 Indian general elections.</s>The European Union is poised to take control of Britain’s exit by rejecting Theresa May’s request for a three-month delay and setting a new withdrawal date of no later than 22 May.

The prime minister is seeking an extension of the negotiating period to 30 June to allow the necessary legislation to be passed should she finally get MPs to back her deal next week.

But EU ambassadors at a meeting late on Wednesday night agreed that the risks of having the UK as a member state beyond 23 May, when European elections are due, were too high.

Sources said that during the discussions some member states favoured a longer period and some a shorter one, but that the room coalesced around 22 May as the absolute limit.

The heads of state and government will hold a discussion on Thursday afternoon after being addressed by May, and will have to agree unanimously on the extension on the date to be written into its summit communique.

“The 22nd of May has to be the limit,” one senior diplomat said. “The reason is that there has got to be a very clear message from the European council. Yes to a short extension on condition that the prime minister passes her deal through the Commons. But beyond that it is utterly complicated. It cannot be done without British MEPs having been elected.”

The European parliament’s Brexit coordinator, Guy Verhofstadt, told the Guardian: “There will be a problem with June. It is absolutely not in the interests of the European Union for it to beyond the date of the European elections.”

Unusually, draft council conclusions – the summit communique issued at the end of meetings of the leaders – were not circulated among the ambassadors.

Sources said the EU’s leaders would have a freewheeling debate about the extension request.

Petitions site crashes after thousands back call to revoke article 50 Read more

The position taken by the ambassadors represents a shift in mood of the member states, who had been reluctant to accept the European commission’s conclusion that an extension could not go beyond 23 May without British MEPs being elected.

The EU’s legal service had indicated that 1 July was the real “legal backstop” for an extension, as the parliament convenes on 2 July.

But the chaos in Westminster has convinced the EU capitals of the dangers that the UK would end up remaining a member state beyond even then without British MEPs having been elected. Such a result could leave the EU’s institutions in “paralysis”, the bloc’s lawyers have advised.

The prime minister’s insistence, in her letter seeking an extension and in the Commons, that she would not hold elections while in Downing Street helped to crystallise the EU’s thinking, sources said.

The ambassadors on Wednesday night agreed that the Strasbourg papers, in which the EU has offered fresh assurances over the temporary nature of the Irish backstop, would be adopted by the leaders.

Donald Tusk: EU will only back short Brexit delay if May’s deal passes Read more

There was a debate among the diplomats over whether the EU would write a date into their summit communique on Thursday, and it was eventually agreed that they should.

There remains a chance that the extension could be even shorter than 22 May, as the British authorities would need time to organise elections. But a delay of a few weeks would be likely to solve little, senior diplomats argued. “It would be useless,” said one.

Verhofstadt, a former Belgian prime minister, said it was time for May to work cross-party to find a majority. “The problem is that Brexit is not being treated as an existential crisis on the table of British politics but as an element in a war between the Conservatives and Labour,” he said.</s>European Union offers choice of short Brexit delays with April or May cut-offs depending on UK's response.

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union offers choice of short Brexit delays with April or May cut-offs depending on UK's response.</s>EU leaders open to Brexit delay, but May faces storm at home

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders meeting for a Brexit summit are likely to grant Britain a short extension, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday, if the U.K. government can win parliamentary support next week for its divorce deal.

But the early signs of that happening were not good. British Prime Minister Theresa May angered many legislators with a televised speech late Wednesday blaming a divided Parliament for an impasse that has left Britain eight days away from crashing out of the bloc. One lawmaker slammed her remarks as "toxic."

May has a tough day ahead as she arrives in Brussels to lobby her European partners to extend the Brexit date from March 29 until June 30 to push through the agreement she reached with the EU in November.

Her deal has been roundly rejected twice by the U.K. Parliament, and EU leaders are being asked to take the risk that May can convince the lawmakers next week.

That looked more uncertain after her speech on the eve of the summit, in which May told a Brexit-weary public: "You want this stage of the Brexit process to be over and done with. I agree. I am on your side."

May accused lawmakers of "infighting, "political games" and "arcane procedural rows," but acknowledged no personal role in creating the impasse.

Many lawmakers, including from some in her own Conservative Party, condemned the tone of her speech.

Anna Soubry, of the breakaway Independent Group, described it in a tweet as the "most dishonest and divisive statement from any Prime Minister." David Lammy of the opposition Labour Party called the speech "sinister," while Conservative Sam Gyimah called May's comments "toxic" and a "low blow."

But Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said May was simply expressing frustration and tapping into the public's exasperated mood.

"In fairness, what she is actually saying is that we have to implement the results of a democratic referendum," he told the BBC. "That's the challenge."

May's opponents, and EU officials, say her refusal to budge on her rejected deal is pushing the country to the brink of a catastrophic no-deal scenario, with huge political and economic implications for Britain and the EU.

Merkel vowed to work "until the last hour" to try and ensure that Britain doesn't leave without a deal, even though her government has already put "the most important emergency measures" in place to deal with such a scenario just in case.

"We will, despite these measures we have taken, work until the last day — I will say until the last hour — to ensure that this emergency planning doesn't come into effect," she said. "We will do everything in the remaining, admittedly few, days to achieve an orderly, joint solution."

Merkel told German lawmakers Thursday that "we can comply in principle with this request if we were to have a positive vote next week on the withdrawal documents in the British Parliament."

But she warned that the EU wants to ensure the legitimacy of the May 23-26 elections to the European Parliament. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has said that the Britain should be out before May 23 or be obliged to take part in the Europe-wide vote.

EU officials fear that citizens unable to vote could launch legal action at the European Court of Justice, or that businesses unhappy with legislation adopted by the new parliament might challenge its legitimacy.

Lithuania's president, Dalia Grybauskaite, said the EU "will certainly be inclined to help (May) to talk to the U.K. Parliament," she said, and that "we will definitely approve (an extension)," the Baltic News Agency said, citing Lithuanian radio.

Should May fail, EU leaders could be forced to meet again next week on the eve of Britain's departure to weigh their next move, with a much longer extension a possibility.

May said Parliament faced a "final choice" between her deal, a no-deal departure and cancelling Brexit.

But what remains unclear is exactly what happens next. Hunt said he did not know if May's Brexit deal will be brought back to Parliament next week, as he warned of "extreme unpredictability" if the issue is not resolved.

Main U.K. opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn was also meeting senior EU officials in Brussels, trying to persuade them that Parliament can find an alternative to May's rejected plan.

"I believe it should be possible to agree a deal with the EU that secures a close economic relationship before the European Parliament elections," Corbyn said.

Geir Moulson in Berlin, Danica Kirka in London and Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed to this report.</s>EU leaders were locked in discussions over proposals to postpone Brexit, after a proposed new date of May 22 came under challenge at a Brussels summit.

A draft communique presented to the leaders of the 27 remaining member-states suggested an extension to the withdrawal process to the eve of European Parliament elections, conditional on MPs approving Theresa May’s Brexit deal.

But a meeting to finalise the offer dragged on long after its scheduled conclusion, amid reports that the text was being torn up and rewritten.

Unconfirmed reports suggested that an alternative date of May 7 – two days before a planned summit in Romania to celebrate the “renewal” of the EU – was under consideration, with a possible extension to the end of the year if the UK takes part in European Parliament elections.

The proposed May 22 date was five weeks short of the June 30 date requested by the British Prime Minister and would present her with a race against time to complete legislation needed for an orderly UK withdrawal.

Mrs May made the case for a June 30 extension in a 90-minute presentation to the EU27, before leaving them to discuss their response in her absence.

But the president of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, told the leaders that MEPs do not want any extension to run beyond April 11, which is the last possible date for the UK to announce its participation in the elections.

The draft communique suggested that an extension could stretch beyond the May 23-26 European elections only if the UK takes part.

“Given that the UK does not intend to hold elections to the European Parliament, no extension is possible beyond that date,” said the draft. British Prime Minister Theresa May is greeted with a kiss on the cheek by president of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

The communique also suggested the EU would formally adopt two documents agreed by Mrs May with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in Strasbourg last week, with the intention of reassuring MPs that the controversial backstop will not be permanent.

As she arrived in Brussels for what was slated to be the UK’s final EU summit as a member of the bloc, the British Prime Minister said she “sincerely hopes” Britain will be able to leave with a deal.

But several leaders warned that if MPs turn down her Withdrawal Agreement for a third time, the UK could be heading for a no-deal Brexit on March 29.

French president Emmanuel Macron said only a short “technical” extension was on offer and if MPs reject the agreement “it will guide everybody to a no-deal for sure”.

Describing the UK as being in “political crisis”, Mr Macron said: “There needs to be a profound political change if there is to be an extension which is anything other than technical.”

Luxembourg’s prime minister Xavier Bettel said: “At the moment, there are more non-options on the table than options… I sometimes have the feeling that we are in the waiting room, a bit like Waiting for Godot. But Godot never came so I hope this time they will come.”

Italian PM Giuseppe Conte said: “We think a short delay could be useful. We need to wait for a new vote in the British Parliament.”

Mrs May was coming under intense pressure after a poor reception from some of her own MPs to her Downing Street statement on Wednesday, when she blamed MPs for failing to implement the result of the 2016 EU referendum and told frustrated voters “I am on your side”.

The televised message was described as a “low blow” by former minister Sam Gyimah.

But Number 10 defended her comments, saying they had been intended as a “message to the public” to explain why she had decided to seek an extension to the Article 50 withdrawal process.

And she put the spotlight back on MPs as she arrived in Brussels, saying: “What is important is that Parliament delivers on the result of the referendum and that we deliver Brexit for the British people. I sincerely hope that we can do that with a deal.”

She added: “What matters is that we recognise that Brexit is the decision of the British people – we need to deliver on that.

“We’re nearly three years on from the original vote – it is now the time for Parliament to decide.” Sir Keir Stammer and Jeremy Corbyn arrive in Brussels ahead of a meeting with Michel Barnier (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Jeremy Corbyn held what he described as “very constructive discussions” in Brussels with EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier and European Commission secretary general Martin Selmayr, which he said had focused on the means to prevent a no-deal Brexit next Friday.

The Labour leader twice declined to rule out the option of halting Brexit by revoking the Article 50 letter informing Brussels of Britain’s intention to quit, though a party spokesman later said revocation was “not in any way necessary”.

Mrs May met European Council president Donald Tusk and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar for one-on-one talks ahead of her presentation.

With fears in Brussels growing that the UK is heading for a no-deal break, Mr Tusk said he would not hesitate to call an emergency summit next week if that proved necessary.

German chancellor Angela Merkel also said she will work “until the last hour” to try and ensure that Britain does not leave the European Union without a deal.

Speaking to German MPs ahead of the summit, Mrs Merkel stressed “the most important emergency measures” are in place in her country to handle no-deal, but she still hopes to avoid a crisis.

She added: “We will, despite these measures we have taken, work until the last day – I will say until the last hour – to ensure that this emergency planning doesn’t come into effect.

“We will do everything in the remaining, admittedly few, days to achieve an orderly, joint solution.” Theresa May speaks with the media as she arrives in Brussels (Olivier Matthys/AP)

Mrs May formally made the request for an extension to the end of June in a letter to Mr Tusk on Wednesday.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Britain would be faced with three options if Mrs May’s deal is defeated again next week: revoke Article 50; leave without a deal; or, he said, a longer extension could be granted at an emergency EU summit, but with “onerous conditions”.

“The choice that we have now is one of resolving this issue or extreme unpredictability,” he warned.

Mr Hunt sought to defend the British Prime Minister’s statement, saying she was under “extraordinary pressure” and feels a “sense of frustration” – and said MPs have a “special responsibility” in a hung Parliament.

“She is absolutely determined to deliver what people voted for and I think… the Brexit process has sapped our national confidence and we need to remember now what we’re capable of as a country.”

A No 10 spokeswoman acknowledged Mrs May is facing some “extraordinarily difficult challenges”, but said she is working “tirelessly” to get her deal “over the line”.</s>Mr Varadkar was speaking in Brussels on day two of the EU Summit after Theresa May secured a two-week extension to Brexit. But the Irish leader said a longer delay would lack support across the continent. Mr Varadkar said: “There is Brexit fatigue across the European Union, I think there's Brexit fatigue in the UK as well - people really want certainty."

The outspoken politician used his meeting to air more of his views on Brexit.

He also told reporters he hoped the extension to Brexit would allow the UK enough time to “decide what it wants to do”.

He then said he hoped Prime Minister Theresa May could get her deal through Parliament.</s>BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders meeting for a Brexit summit are likely to grant Britain a short extension, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday, if the U.K. government can win parliamentary support next week for its divorce deal.

But the early signs of that happening were not good. British Prime Minister Theresa May angered many legislators with a televised speech late Wednesday blaming a divided Parliament for an impasse that has left Britain eight days away from crashing out of the bloc. One lawmaker slammed her remarks as “toxic.”

May has a tough day ahead as she arrives in Brussels to lobby her European partners to extend the Brexit date from March 29 until June 30 to push through the agreement she reached with the EU in November.

Her deal has been roundly rejected twice by the U.K. Parliament, and EU leaders are being asked to take the risk that May can convince the lawmakers next week.

That looked more uncertain after her speech on the eve of the summit, in which May told a Brexit-weary public: “You want this stage of the Brexit process to be over and done with. I agree. I am on your side.”

May accused lawmakers of “infighting, “political games” and “arcane procedural rows,” but acknowledged no personal role in creating the impasse.

Many lawmakers, including from some in her own Conservative Party, condemned the tone of her speech.

Anna Soubry, of the breakaway Independent Group, described it in a tweet as the “most dishonest and divisive statement from any Prime Minister.” David Lammy of the opposition Labour Party called the speech “sinister,” while Conservative Sam Gyimah called May’s comments “toxic” and a “low blow.”

But Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said May was simply expressing frustration and tapping into the public’s exasperated mood.

“In fairness, what she is actually saying is that we have to implement the results of a democratic referendum,” he told the BBC. “That’s the challenge.”

May’s opponents, and EU officials, say her refusal to budge on her rejected deal is pushing the country to the brink of a catastrophic no-deal scenario, with huge political and economic implications for Britain and the EU.

Merkel vowed to work “until the last hour” to try and ensure that Britain doesn’t leave without a deal, even though her government has already put “the most important emergency measures” in place to deal with such a scenario just in case.

“We will, despite these measures we have taken, work until the last day — I will say until the last hour — to ensure that this emergency planning doesn’t come into effect,” she said. “We will do everything in the remaining, admittedly few, days to achieve an orderly, joint solution.”

Merkel told German lawmakers Thursday that “we can comply in principle with this request if we were to have a positive vote next week on the withdrawal documents in the British Parliament.”

But she warned that the EU wants to ensure the legitimacy of the May 23-26 elections to the European Parliament. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has said that the Britain should be out before May 23 or be obliged to take part in the Europe-wide vote.

EU officials fear that citizens unable to vote could launch legal action at the European Court of Justice, or that businesses unhappy with legislation adopted by the new parliament might challenge its legitimacy.

Lithuania’s president, Dalia Grybauskaite, said the EU “will certainly be inclined to help (May) to talk to the U.K. Parliament,” she said, and that “we will definitely approve (an extension),” the Baltic News Agency said, citing Lithuanian radio.

Should May fail, EU leaders could be forced to meet again next week on the eve of Britain’s departure to weigh their next move, with a much longer extension a possibility.

May said Parliament faced a “final choice” between her deal, a no-deal departure and cancelling Brexit.

But what remains unclear is exactly what happens next. Hunt said he did not know if May’s Brexit deal will be brought back to Parliament next week, as he warned of “extreme unpredictability” if the issue is not resolved.

Main U.K. opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn was also meeting senior EU officials in Brussels, trying to persuade them that Parliament can find an alternative to May’s rejected plan.

“I believe it should be possible to agree a deal with the EU that secures a close economic relationship before the European Parliament elections,” Corbyn said.</s>Just days before the United Kingdom was due to leave the European Union, the March 29 cliff edge was moved by two weeks to April 12 but it is still uncertain how, when or if Brexit will happen.

Nearly three years since the 2016 Brexit vote, the deepest political crisis in recent British history has left three main options: leaving without a deal; leaving with a deal; or stopping the entire divorce.

Even the details of exactly when Brexit might happen are vague: It might leave abruptly at 2200 GMT on April 12 but EU officials said it could also be later, deal or no deal.

For a story on May’s delay to Brexit:

For a factbox on what happens next:

Following are the main scenarios:

1) NO-DEAL EXIT – The chaos in London is such that parliament rejects Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal for a third time next week and the United Kingdom exits without a deal shortly after April 12.

This is the nightmare scenario for many businesses: it would spook financial markets and dislocate supply chains across Europe and beyond. The political and social impact is unclear.

EU leaders on Thursday agreed to give May two weeks’ reprieve, until April 12. Only if lawmakers approve May’s deal will the exit will be delayed until May 22.

“The UK Government will still have a choice of a deal, no-deal, a long extension or revoking Article 50,” said summit chair Donald Tusk, referring to the treaty clause that covers Britain’s departure.

“The 12th of April is a key date in terms of the UK deciding whether to hold European Parliament elections. If it has not decided to do so by then, the option of a long extension will automatically become impossible.”

A long extension is envisaged as being for one year, giving time for Britain to hold an election, a referendum or both. This avoids delaying so long that Britain’s presence would complicate negotiations for a new EU long-term budget from 2021.

In effect, the EU has now put the onus back on Britain, which must decide by April 12 whether to participate in EU elections as part of a long-term rethink or prepare to quit by May 22, or possibly in June, without a deal.

“Everything is now in the hands of the House of Commons. That’s the message,” a senior EU official said.

So if May’s deal fails again, the risk of an accidental no-deal exit shoots up unless parliament can find another option – effectively usurping the prime minister and her government.

It is still unclear when parliament will vote on her deal but Tuesday is most widely expected.

To succeed, May must win over at least 75 lawmakers: dozens of rebels in her Conservative Party, some Labour lawmakers, and the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which props up her minority government.

If May hoped a televised address on Wednesday would persuade wavering lawmakers to support her, it appears to have backfired, alienating the people she must win over.

As of Thursday, it appeared unlikely that May’s deal will pass next week, though the prospect of no deal may swing more lawmakers behind her.

When the other 27 leaders of the EU conferred on Thursday they felt even less convinced than before that she will pass the deal, officials told Reuters.

French President Emmanuel Macron said that before coming to Brussels he had thought May had a 10 percent chance of winning the vote. After listening to her he cut that to five percent.

To general assent, one person present said, Tusk said Macron was being “very optimistic”.

After months of predicting that May would ultimately get her deal approved, some banks have now changed their view.

Goldman Sachs raised the probability of a no-deal exit to 15 percent from 5 percent.

May says she will not delay Brexit beyond June 30 though the EU has said the United Kingdom must be out of the bloc it joined in 1973 by the time of the EU parliament elections on May 23-26.

If May’s deal fails a third time, her Brexit negotiation will have collapsed and her authority would be shot, though the mechanism for removing her is still unclear.

She could call a general election, though that would also require a delay to avoid a no-deal exit.

No-deal means there would be no transition so the exit would be abrupt. Britain is a member of the World Trade Organization so tariffs and other terms governing its trade with the EU would be set under WTO rules.

Britain says it will eliminate import tariffs on a wide range of goods and keep the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland free of customs checks if it leaves without a deal, but the EU would apply normal WTO tariffs on trade.

2) BREXIT WITH A DEAL – May gets her deal approved at a third attempt and the United Kingdom leaves in an orderly fashion on May 22. Or May loses and parliament grabs control at the last minute and comes up with something different.

May’s deal was defeated by 149 votes on March 12 and by 230 votes on Jan. 15. If May’s deal fails, or if another vote on the same deal is prevented, parliament could take control of Brexit before April 12, seeking a closer relationship with the EU by staying in its customs union.

“At this point we would either leave with no deal, or put forward an alternative plan,” May said after the EU summit.

Lawmakers are due on Monday to debate a government motion saying parliament has considered a statement made by May on March 15 which set out the government’s next steps on Brexit, including the plan to seek a delay.

They are likely to propose changes, or amendments, to this motion setting out alternative ways forward on Brexit. These are expected to include a proposal to approve May’s deal only if it is put to a public vote.

While amendments are not legally binding, instead simply exerting political pressure on May to change course, lawmakers could use one to attempt to change the rules of parliament to wrest control of the Brexit process from the government.

They could even use an amendment to seek a vote on revoking Article 50 of the Lisbon treaty to cancel Brexit.

Some lawmakers have proposed a set of indicative votes to plot a way forward. If May’s deal is defeated on Tuesday, this could happen on Wednesday.

Parliament should be given the opportunity to find an alternative way and lawmakers would support a Norway-style post-Brexit relationship, Conservative lawmaker Oliver Letwin said.

3) STOPPING BREXIT – May’s deal fails and parliament decides to revoke the Article 50 divorce notice or demand another referendum. Or May falls and a national election is called.

European leaders have repeatedly raised the possibility of Britain revoking Article 50, which May has repeatedly said she will not do.

Another option is to call a referendum.

In the June 23, 2016 referendum, 17.4 million voters, or 51.9 percent, backed leaving the EU while 16.1 million, or 48.1 percent, backed staying.

While many surveys ahead of the vote incorrectly predicted that the United Kingdom would vote to stay in the club it joined in 1973, polls now suggest no great desire for a second referendum and indicate that many voters, fatigued by the political squabbling, would be happy to leave without a deal.

Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who voted against membership in 1975 and gave only reluctant backing to the 2016 campaign to remain, has given ambiguous support for another referendum, saying he would push for one alongside a national election.

Asked if he would vote to remain in a possible future referendum, Corbyn said on Sunday: “It depends what the choice is in front of us.”

In government, there are worries that a second referendum would exacerbate the deep divisions exposed by the 2016 vote, alienate millions of pro-Brexit voters and stoke support for the far-right.

Already, many supporters of Brexit, and even some lawmakers, say the elite has sabotaged the EU divorce and is trying to subvert the will of the people.

It is far from clear how Britain would vote. And if it did vote to remain, Brexit supporters might demand a third and decisive vote.</s>Leave supporter MP Nigel Evans has claimed that in the event the EU says the UK can only have an extension if Theresa May gets her deal through Parliament before March 29, she should simply say thank you and leave talks. He added that the Prime Minister should not beg the EU for anything and would be hailed as a hero if she managed to take the UK out of the EU on time. Speaking to Sky News before Theresa May’s speech yesterday Mr Evans said: “Theresa May going cap in hand to the European Union asking for an extension is a total humiliation for us.

“We know where we are but it depends now on what the EU say. “Quite frankly if they say you are going to have a short extension and if you don’t get your deal through then your out March 29. “Theresa May shouldn’t beg them she should just say, Thank you very much we now know where we are. “If left in a weeks time on WTO terms Theresa May would be a hero in this country, an absolute hero.

“She has got to show leadership which is another thing people said, show absolute leadership as we said we were going to leave on March 29. “We have spent billions preparing for it, there should be no fear about it, it is the certainty that people want. “At least we wouldn’t be having this warfare. “The public are just looking at us going, you are the Parliament of this country, get on with it.

“Theresa May get on with it.” EU leaders will meet today to discuss a short extension of Article 50 as all 27 leaders need to agree on the extension before it can be put in place. Theresa May is set to attend the EU summit on Friday hoping to have more talks with senior EU leaders. The Prime Minister still intends to have her Brexit deal voted on and a third meaningful vote which could be called as early as next week Tuesday.
The European Union confirms that UK Prime Minister Theresa May's requested short extension date of 30 June is too late due to pending EU elections. After lengthy discussions, EU leaders agree that if the Prime Minister's deal is passed next week a short extension until 22 May is available to pass the necessary legislation. If that deal is not passed, the UK is given until 12 April to define whether it will participate in EU elections.