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’.

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 Monday.

Speaking 1,000 days after the UK voted to leave the EU, Mrs May warned MPs they would never be forgiven if they failed to deliver Brexit.

Addressing the public directly, she said: ‘Of this I am absolutely sure, you the public have had enough, you are tired of the infighting, you are 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.’

Ministers still hope they can win the backing of the DUP and persuade more moderate Eurosceptics to back the deal. But they have all but abandoned hope of persuading the two dozen Brexit hardliners holding out for No Deal.

Instead they are focusing on Labour MPs, particularly those in Leave-supporting areas, who they believe might reluctantly back Mrs May’s plan rather than allow the UK to crash out next week.

Last night some MPs suggested her comments could backfire, with one warning they could spark attacks on MPs.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson is urging Mrs May to give Tory MPs a free vote next week in the hope of making it easier for Labour MPs to vote for the deal.
• Jeremy Corbyn walked out of cross-party crisis talks with the Prime Minister last night in protest at the presence of ex-Labour MP Chuka Umunna;
• Reports from France suggested President Emmanuel Macron is ready to veto any request for a Brexit delay, meaning the UK will leave on March 29 with or without a deal;
• Arch Remainer Dominic Grieve said he was ‘ashamed’ to be a Conservative and warned: ‘We are going to spiral down into oblivion and the worst part of it all is that we will deserve it’;
• Mrs May held talks with opposition leaders in the hope of securing their support for a deal next week to prevent the UK crashing out;
• The European Parliament’s Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt said: ‘The only relevant question now is if Prime Minister May can muster a cross-party majority by next week’;
• The Liberal Democrats and SNP called for Parliament to prepare to revoke Article 50 ‘as a last resort’;
• European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker warned that the UK would have to hold elections to the European parliament if it wanted to delay beyond May 23;
• Tory hardliners called for the Prime Minister to resign, with Peter Bone accusing her to her face of ‘betraying the British people’;
• A SkyData poll found that 90 per cent of voters believe the Brexit negotiations have been a ‘national humiliation’.

Mrs May’s decision to rule out a long delay stunned Cabinet Remainers who believed she was ready to sign up to the proposal in order to remove the risk of No Deal.

The decision was taken by the PM in the early hours of yesterday and released to the media before ministers were told.

It came a week after her deputy David Lidington told MPs: ‘A short one-off extension would be downright reckless.’

A senior Remainer accused Mrs May of caving in to Brexiteer Cabinet ministers, who had threatened to quit rather than allow a long delay. The minister said: ‘No Deal has got more likely. The ERG hardliners are never going to vote for it now because they have got the prospect of No Deal.’

Iain Duncan Smith, a former leader of the Conservatives, said: ‘Why are we on bended knee to the EU begging for things we don’t need?

‘Next week should be a simple choice between her deal and No Deal. If it isn’t then it will be a national humiliation.’

Another former leader, William Hague, warned that the chances of an imminent election were rising fast.

He also warned of a ‘longer and longer’ delay to Brexit.</s>The future of Brexit was being decided behind closed doors in Brussels, as leaders of the 27 remaining EU states wrangled over a possible postponement in Theresa May’s absence.

The Prime Minister’s plea for a three-month extension to the negotiation process to June 30 to allow her time to prepare for an orderly departure appears to have fallen on deaf ears.

Instead, the EU27 appear determined to ensure that the UK leaves before European Parliament elections on May 23-26, unless Mrs May relents and allows Britain to join in.

European Council president Donald Tusk tabled proposals for the date of Brexit to be put off from March 29 to May 22, on the condition that MPs approve Mrs May’s withdrawal deal when it comes before the Commons for a third time.

But the draft communique setting out the plan was torn up and rewritten as leaders argued over alternative dates.

A new proposal backed by France and Belgium would allow the UK to remain until May 7 whether or not MPs vote Mrs May’s deal through.

The unconditional offer would take the pressure off the PM to stage a third “meaningful vote” next week, and would remove the need for an emergency Brussels summit next Thursday if she failed.

Under this plan, a longer extension would be available only if the UK declares by April 11 – the final date allowed by electoral law – that it will take part in the Euro-elections.

The so-called “flextension” plan would pile pressure on MPs who are resisting agreeing an exit deal, while keeping open the possibility of a longer delay if the UK decides to adopt a new approach.

It would also ensure that the cut-off date came before a May 9 summit in Romania intended to mark the “renewal” of the European project.

European Parliament president Antonio Tajani told the EU27 that MEPs want April 11 to be the final cut-off for any extension.

But Germany seemed keen to avoid ratcheting up pressure on Mrs May, with Chancellor Angela Merkel promising work “until the last hour” to ensure that Britain does not leave without a deal.

Behind-the-scenes photos showed EU officials gathered round laptops in the corridors working on new versions of the communique.

Mrs May made the case for a June 30 extension to the Article 30 withdrawal process in a 90-minute presentation to the leaders of the other 27 states.

The Prime Minister was reportedly pressed on what she will do if MPs reject her deal for a third time – having voted it down by a margin of 230 in January and 149 last week – but did not commit herself to a Plan B.

She then left the EU27 to continue their discussions in her absence in a meeting which dragged for two hours beyond its scheduled conclusion before they broke for dinner.

The PM had been due to join them for the meal of lentil terrine with langoustines followed by roast duckling, but was forced to dine alone as they continued to debate Brexit as they ate.

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 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.”

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”.

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.”

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt sought to defend the Prime Minister’s statement, saying she was under “extraordinary pressure” and feels a “sense of frustration” but is “absolutely determined to deliver what people voted for.”

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”.</s>Raf Casert and Jill Lawless, The Associated Press 

 



BRUSSELS -- Worn down by three years of indecision in London, European Union leaders on Thursday grudgingly offered the U.K. more time to ease itself out of the bloc, delaying by several weeks -- but not eliminating -- the threat of a chaotic British exit.

After a meeting that stretched through the afternoon and over dinner, the bloc said Britain could postpone its departure, due on March 29, until May 22 -- if the U.K. Parliament approves Prime Minister Theresa May's divorce deal with the bloc next week.

If the twice-rejected deal is thrown out again, the bloc says Britain has until April 12 to "indicate a way forward." May agreed to the plan, European Council President Donald Tusk said.

The deep uncertainty among leaders at an EU summit in Brussels was exceeded only by the high anxiety being felt by politicians, businesses and citizens in Britain. The British military has even set up a command post in a bunker under the defence ministry in London to help co-ordinate "no-deal" planning.

Thursday's summit opened with ominous warnings from EU leaders about the possibility of a no-deal Brexit.

French President Emmanuel Macron warned it was the responsibility of U.K. lawmakers to approve a Brexit deal and make sure Britain does not crash out of the bloc without an agreement.

"In case of a 'no' vote ... it will guide everybody to a no-deal for sure," Macron cautioned. "This is it."

The House of Commons is split, both among and within its political parties, over whether and how to leave the EU. It has twice rejected the deal Prime Minister Theresa May brokered with the bloc's leaders late last year.

"We are all waiting, waiting for what the British intend to do," said EU Parliament President Antonio Tajani. "We are all concerned."

This week, May finally acknowledged the Brexit gridlock and asked the EU to delay Britain's departure until June 30 -- enough time, she hopes, to win parliamentary approval for her deal in a third attempt and then pass the legislation necessary for a smooth departure.

But opposition to May's the agreement among British politicians appeared to be hardening, rather than softening, after she blamed Parliament for the Brexit impasse.

In a televised address Wednesday night, May accused lawmakers of "infighting," "political games" and "arcane procedural rows," but acknowledged no personal error in creating the deadlock.

A lawmaker from May's Conservative Party called the speech "toxic." Legislator Anna Soubry, of the breakaway Independent Group, described it as the "most dishonest and divisive statement from any prime minister."

In response, May hunkered down, calling on lawmakers to back her agreement and refusing to rule out a no-deal exit if they did not back her.

"What matters is that we recognize that Brexit is the decision of the British people. We need to deliver on that," May said as she arrived in Brussels. "I sincerely hope that will be with a negotiated deal."

Businesses and economists say a no-deal Brexit would cause huge disruptions and billions in costs to the economies of both Britain and the EU.

Underscoring the sense of dread gripping the nation, one of Britain's biggest business lobbies and a major trade union federation said in a rare joint appeal that the "country is facing a national emergency."

The Confederation of British Industry and the Trades Union Congress warned May that if Britain crashes out of the EU, "the shock to our economy would be felt by generations to come."

Britain's military said the command post under the ministry of defence was set up as a continuation of earlier planning operations, called Operation Redfold, designed to minimize disruption in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

The ministry said in a statement it had 3,500 troops on standby to help with any disruptions if the government asks for assistance.

Worry about a chaotic departure is rising among EU leaders, who fear May no longer has the clout in Parliament to get her way.

"Nobody wants no-deal here," Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar told reporters.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed to work "until the last hour" to try to ensure that Britain doesn't leave without a deal, even though her government has enacted emergency measures to deal with such a scenario.

May plans to make a third attempt to get her deal through Parliament next week. But many pro-Brexit legislators still oppose it, saying it does not deliver the clean break they long for. And Pro-EU lawmakers will try to derail May and wrest away control of the Brexit process to steer Britain toward a close relationship with the bloc.

It's a struggle that has been going on for almost three years and has brought the U.K. to within eight days of a chaotic Brexit.

EU leaders are watching with disbelief, horror -- and, for some, sympathy.

"I never got frustrated with Theresa May. I have the highest respect for her," said Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. "Her tenacity is enormous. But she is working in an extremely difficult situation.

"It's not her mistake that we are where we are -- it's because too many people have so far played party politics on this issue."

Associated Press writers Samuel Petrequin and Lorne Cook in Brussels, Geir Moulson in Berlin, Danica Kirka and Gregory Katz in London and Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed.</s>BRUSSELS, March 20 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May discussed the latest on Brexit with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the latter said ahead of an EU leaders’ summit this Thursday and Friday.

“She (May) informed him (Juncker) on the latest state of play... and consulted him about the best way how to approach the (European Union summit). Discussions are continuing,” the spokeswoman said. (Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska, editing by Thomas Escritt)</s>UK Prime Minister Theresa May says she has asked EU to delay Brexit until June 30

LONDON (AP) — UK Prime Minister Theresa May says she has asked EU to delay Brexit until June 30.</s>LONDON — Prime Minister Theresa May formally asked the European Union on Wednesday to postpone Britain’s departure from the bloc — due in nine days — until June 30. But a frustrated EU has warned it could keep Britain waiting for an answer.

In a letter to European Council President Donald Tusk, May said the Brexit process “clearly will not be completed before 29 March, 2019” — the date fixed in law two years ago for Britain’s departure.

She asked for a delay until June 30, and said she wanted to set out her reasons to EU leaders at a summit in Brussels on Thursday.

Opposition politicians, and pro-EU members of May’s Conservative government, had urged a longer extension, saying a delay of just a few months could leave Britain once again facing a cliff-edge “no-deal” Brexit this summer. Withdrawing without a deal could mean huge disruption for businesses and people in the U.K. and the 27 remaining EU countries.

But a long extension would infuriate the pro-Brexit wing of May’s divided party, and would require Britain to participate in May 23-26 elections for the European Parliament.

May said that would be unacceptable.

“As prime minister I am not prepared to delay Brexit any further than June 30,” she said in the House of Commons.

May said a longer delay would result in Parliament spending “endless hours contemplating its navel on Brexit.”

Britain voted in June 2016 to quit the EU, but almost three years later, its politicians are deadlocked over how — and even whether — to leave.

“Today marks 1,000 days since the referendum and this government has led the country and themselves into crisis, chaos and division,” said opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

British lawmakers have twice rejected the Brexit deal May has struck with the bloc. Her troubles deepened when the speaker of the House of Commons ruled earlier this week that she can’t ask Parliament to vote on the deal again unless it is substantially changed. That scuttled May’s plan to try a third time this week to get the agreement approved.

May told Tusk that despite the ruling “it remains my intention to bring the deal back to the House.”

If it is approved, she plans to use the extension until June 30 in order for Parliament to pass the necessary legislation for Britain’s departure.

A delay to Britain’s withdrawal requires the approval of all 27 remaining EU countries — and that’s not guaranteed. Any delay that required Britain to take part in European parliamentary elections would be a major headache for the bloc, and some EU leaders want a short extension to end by May 23, when voting begins.

The head of the bloc’s executive branch said EU leaders are unlikely to agree to a delay at a summit this week.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said if May wanted a delay, “she must bring approval of the negotiated deal and she must bring clear ideas on timing.”

“My impression is … that this week at the European Council there will be no decision, but that we will probably have to meet again next week, because Mrs. May doesn’t have agreement to anything, either in her Cabinet or in Parliament,” Juncker told Germany’s Deutschlandfunk radio.

“As long as we don’t know what Britain could say yes to, we can’t reach a decision.”

Britain’s political chaos has drawn reactions ranging from sympathy to scorn at home and around the world. On its front page Wednesday, the Brexit-backing Daily Mail newspaper bemoaned the time since the referendum as”1,000 lost days.”

From Washington, Donald Trump Jr. said May should have listened to his father, who urged her last year to sue the EU in order to secure better departure terms. The U.S. president has criticized May for not taking his advice.

The president’s multimillionaire son blamed “elites” in London and Brussels for scuttling Brexit. Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Trump Jr. said “democracy in the U.K. is all but dead.”

The gridlock is also causing increasing exasperation among EU leaders.

Juncker said that “in all probability” Britain won’t leave on March 29, but he underlined the EU’s insistence that it will not reopen the painstakingly negotiated withdrawal agreement that British lawmakers have snubbed.

“There will be no renegotiations, no new negotiations and no additional assurances on top of the additional assurances we have already given,” he said.

Juncker said Britain’s Parliament needed to decide whether it would approve the deal that is on the table.

“If that doesn’t happen, and if Great Britain does not leave at the end of March, then we are, I am sorry to say, in the hands of God,” he said. “And I think even God sometimes reaches a limit to his patience.”

Geir Moulson in Berlin and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this story.</s>EU's Juncker says Brexit delay decision unlikely this week

BERLIN (AP) — European Union leaders are unlikely to agree at a summit this week on a delay to Britain's departure, and will probably have to meet again next week, the head of the bloc's executive branch said Wednesday.

British Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to ask Brussels for a delay to Brexit, currently scheduled for March 29, ahead of the EU summit starting Thursday. Details remain unclear, but May's troubles deepened when the speaker of the House of Commons ruled earlier this week that she can't keep asking lawmakers to vote on the same divorce deal they have already rejected twice.

Britain's political chaos is causing increasing exasperation among EU leaders. Asked by Germany's Deutschlandfunk radio what May would need to secure a delay this week, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker replied that "she must bring approval of the negotiated deal and she must bring clear ideas on timing."

"My impression is ... that this week at the European Council there will be no decision, but that we will probably have to meet again next week, because Mrs. May doesn't have agreement to anything, either in her Cabinet or in Parliament," Juncker added.

"As long as we don't know what Britain could say yes to, we can't reach a decision."

A delay to Britain's withdrawal would require the approval of all 27 remaining EU countries. Juncker said that "in all probability" Britain won't leave on March 29, but underlined the EU's insistence that it will not reopen the painstakingly negotiated withdrawal agreement that British lawmakers have snubbed.

"There will be no renegotiations, no new negotiations and no additional assurances on top of the additional assurances we have already given," he said.

"We will keep talking to the British. We are not in a state of war with Britain, we are in a state of negotiations, but the negotiations are concluded."</s>Lawmakers later passed an amendment compelling May to request an extension to the negotiation period, which had been due to wrap up by March 29, the official Brexit date set by Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, the mechanism to leave the bloc

London: British Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday wrote to the European Union seeking extension of the Brexit negotiation until June 30 to allow her time to secure backing of Parliament, which has twice rejected her current proposal.

May laid the blame for the required extension on lawmakers and the Speaker of the House of Commons, the UK's lower parliamentary chamber, where her deal met an impasse, Efe news reported.

"You will be aware that before the House of Commons rejected the deal for a second time on March 12, I warned in a speech in Grimsby that the consequences of failing to endorse the deal were unpredictable and potentially deeply unpalatable," May said. "The House of Commons did not vote in favour of the deal."

Lawmakers later passed an amendment compelling May to request an extension to the negotiation period, which had been due to wrap up by March 29, the official Brexit date set by Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, the mechanism to leave the bloc.

But May had plans to bring the deal back to the Commons for third attempt. It was scuppered when Speaker John Bercow drew on a 400-year-old guideline preventing government from pressing lawmakers to vote repeatedly on the same policy unless it contained substantial changes.

"This position has made it impossible in practice to call a further vote in advance of the European Council," she said in reference to the EU leaders' summit, scheduled for March 21 and 22.

"However it remains my intention to bring the deal back to the House," she said.

Stating that it was unlikely to be ratified by March 29, the Prime Minister said she was seeking an extension to Article 50 until June 30.

May said she thought the extension did not mean that the UK would have to run in the European Parliament elections slated for May 22.

May's two attempts to push her Conservative Party minority government's withdrawal agreement through the House of Commons have failed -- the first by a historic majority and the second by the fourth-largest majority in Parliament's history.

In a thinly veiled warning to hardline Conservatives, who by and large oppose the government's Brexit plan, May warned after her second defeat their failure to back her deal could result in an extended delay that could ultimately see the UK take part in the European elections and could also lead to no Brexit at all.

The EU leaders have said they would only ratify the extensions if the UK government included fresh proposals. All 27 remaining EU states will vote on the proposed extension.

France has said it would be willing to veto a delay only if it had an "objective and strategy."

Speaking to German radio on Wednesday, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said he did not believe a specific date for the delay would be agreed on during a European Council summit on March 21-22.

"My impression today at 8.15 am is that this week we will not conclude anything, but rather we will have to meet once again next week," he said.

May's next moves depend on how the EU responds to her request.

On March 14, European Council President Donald Tusk said he would ask EU leaders at the summit to get behind a long Brexit extension.

Anti-Brexit leaders in the UK, however, have accused her of trying to appease hardline members of her own party. "The question is how long the so-called moderates in her own party are going to allow this pandering to the hardliners to continue," Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland's first minister and leader of the pro-independence Scottish National Party, said on Twitter.

May has struggled to please pro-Brexit back-benchers in her own ranks, who favour a harder withdrawal, as well as the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party, which props up her executive.

The UK electorate narrowly voted to leave in a 2016 referendum, although voters in Scotland and Northern Ireland backed remain.

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also, download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get the latest updates</s>European Council president Donald Tusk has said a 'short' Brexit delay could be possible - but only if Parliament votes for Theresa May's deal.

Last week MPs voted to delay Brexit beyond the scheduled withdrawal date of March 29 after Parliament twice rejected the Prime Minister's deal.

However Mr Tusk said he had spoken to the Prime Minister after receiving her formal request for an extension of the Article 50 withdrawal process to the end of June.

Mrs May made the request in a letter to Mr Tusk exactly 1,000 days after the 2016 referendum which delivered a 52% - 48% majority to quit the EU.

The former Polish prime minister told a press conference in Brussels: "In the light of the consultations that I have conducted over the past days, I believe that a short extension would be possible.

"But it would be conditional on a positive vote on the Withdrawal Agreement in the House of Commons.

"The question remains open as to the duration of such an extension."

After his statement, Mr Tusk tweeted: "Even if the hope for final success may seem frail, even illusory, and although Brexit fatigue is increasingly visible and justified, we cannot give up seeking - until the very last moment - a positive solution."

Meanwhile, Theresa May has invited all opposition party leaders for a meeting in her parliamentary office on Wednesday evening.

The leaders of the Labour Party, SNP, Liberal Democrats, Green Party, Plaid Cymru and the Independent Group are understood to have been invited.

Last Thursday a motion in Mrs May's name, authorising the Prime Minister to request an extension to the two-year Article 50 negotiation process, was passed by 412 votes to 202 - a majority of 210.

On the same night MPs decisively rejected an attempt by the Independent Group to secure a second referendum on Brexit, by 334 votes to 85.

By the far narrower margin of 314-312, they voted down a cross-party bid for Parliament to seize control of the Brexit process.

Earlier this week the Prime Minister was been told by House Speaker John Bercow that she cannot ask MPs to vote on her Brexit deal for a third time - unless the government makes "substantial" changes.</s>The DUP won’t be backing the prime minister’s “toxic” Brexit deal and the party has not been offered a financial incentive to do so, Sammy Wilson has said.

The East Antrim MP was commenting as Theresa May arrived in Brussels to seek a postponement of Brexit beyond the March 29 deadline.

Speaking to reporters as she arrived for the EU summit, Mrs May said: “I’m here today to discuss with fellow leaders our request for a short extension of Article 50 to the end of June.

“This delay is a matter of personal regret to me. But a short extension would give Parliament time to make a final choice that delivers on the result of the referendum.”

On Wednesday, the prime minister said MPs were responsible for the failure to ratify the agreement that would allow the UK to leave the EU on March 29.

The government has been involved in discussions with the DUP in the hope that the party’s 10 MPs can be encouraged to back Mrs May’s plan.

However, Mr Wilson said: “No bribes have been offered to us. No bribes would ever be accepted.”

Speaking to TalkRadio, the DUP’s Brexit spokesman said: “The issues at stake are far, far too important to simply be bought off by some fiscal promises as to what kind of money might be available to Northern Ireland.

“The fact that the chancellor was involved in the talks was not of our choosing, but was to do with some HMRC issues along the border.”

Mr Wilson went on to say: “I neither want this toxic deal nor the extension so there is no pressure on me or my party to vote for this deal, and certainly not on the basis of demands from Donald Tusk, who has shown total disrespect for the prime minister and the United Kingdom.”

Asked for his views on what will happen in the Commons next week, he said: “As someone who is proud to be a citizen of the United Kingdom, I too am angry at the way in which we have been treated disrespectfully.

“We have been humiliated, our prime minister has been humiliated by European leaders.

“It’s one of the things that makes me more determined that we’ve got to get out of this cabal in Brussels and get our own freedom.”

In a separate interview with the BBC, Mr Wilson was asked if his party would prefer a no-deal Brexit over an extension of Article 50 – the process to trigger leaving the EU – and said that was not being discussed by the DUP.

“If you say you’re going to settle for no deal, people think you’re just giving up,” he added.

“We are not and won’t until this deal comes back to the Commons and will seek to ensure the government do what it promised it would do.”
UK Prime Minister Theresa May formally writes a letter to European Council President Donald Tusk requesting for a delay of Brexit until June 30.