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British PM Theresa May seeks last-ditch Brexit deal with opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, enraging many in her own Tory party

  • Theresa May will seek another short extension of the Brexit deadline, as she gambles that negotiations with Labour can end an impasse
  • Brexiteers Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg decried the move, amid concerns that Brexit ‘is becoming soft to the point of disintegration’

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British Prime Minister Theresa May and opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Photos: AFP and AP

UK Prime Minister Theresa May said on Tuesday she would seek another Brexit delay to agree an EU divorce deal with the opposition Labour leader, a last-ditch gambit to break an impasse over Britain’s departure that enraged many in her party.

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Nearly three years since the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union in a shock referendum result, it is still unclear how, when or if it will ever indeed quit the European club it first joined in 1973.

British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn (left) replies to British Prime Minister Theresa May after her statement on Brexit to the British House of Commons on March 25. Photo: EPA
British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn (left) replies to British Prime Minister Theresa May after her statement on Brexit to the British House of Commons on March 25. Photo: EPA

In a hastily arranged statement from her Downing Street office after spending seven hours chairing cabinet meetings on how to plot a way out of the Brexit maze, May said she was seeking another short extension to Brexit beyond April 12.

Her move offers the prospect of keeping the United Kingdom in a much closer economic relationship with the EU after Brexit – though it could also rip her Conservative Party apart as half her lawmakers want a decisive split from the bloc.

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