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Reuters

Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday she wanted Britain to be able to leave the European Union with an exit deal on May 22.
May had agreed with EU leaders to delay Brexit until May 22 if her Withdrawal Agreement with the bloc was approved by parliament by March 29 but lawmakers rejected her deal for a third time. She is now seeking to thrash out a Brexit compromise with opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
“What I want to see now is us able to find a position where we can across this House (of Commons) support the Withdrawal Agreement and a deal which enables to leave on 22 May,” she told parliament.
May said there were several areas of agreement between her and Corbyn.
“There are actually a number of areas we agree on in relation to Brexit … what we want to do now is to find a way forward that can command the support of this House and deliver on Brexit,” May said.
She listed a desire to protect jobs, to leave the EU with a deal and to end free movement as some of the areas of agreement.

However, by approaching Corbyn, a veteran socialist loathed by many of May’s Conservatives and mocked by May herself as unfit to govern, she risks further inflaming divisions in her party. One minister quit on Wednesday.
“It now seems that you and your cabinet have decided that a deal – cooked up with a Marxist who has never once in his political life put British interests first – is better than ‘no- deal’,” Nigel Adams said as he resigned as a minister for Wales.
May turned to Labour after a hardcore Eurosceptic group of Conservatives repeatedly rejected her divorce deal, saying it would leave Britain a “vassal state”.
Comedy of errors: meet the cast of Britain’s Brexit tragedy
Labour wants to stay in a customs union with the EU, raising the likelihood of a “soft” Brexit option that keeps Britain’s economy closely aligned to the world’s biggest trading bloc.
Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay said the government would accept a soft Brexit if parliament voted for it.
May said on Tuesday she would seek “as short as possible” a delay to the current Brexit date of April 12, having repeatedly said she did not want Britain to have to take part in European Parliament elections on May 23.

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said Ireland would support a delay but Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said there was currently no reason to agree an extension.
And European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Britain would not get any further short delays to Brexit unless its parliament ratified a deal by April 12 – the date set by EU leaders as the effective cut-off for avoiding the European Parliament elections.
“A ‘no-deal’ at midnight on the 12th of April is now a very likely scenario,” he told the European Parliament.
He reiterated that Britain would not get a transition period to soften the impact of leaving the EU unless it ratified the exit deal: “UK will be affected more than EU because there is no such thing as a ‘managed or negotiated no-deal’ and there is no such thing as a ‘no-deal transition’.”
As things stand, Britain will still leave the EU on April 12 without a deal, a scenario many Conservative lawmakers would welcome, but that businesses fear could cause huge economic damage.
Tories outraged, Jeremy Corbyn happy: what’s next for Theresa May’s Brexit mess?
A survey of services firms ranging from banks to high-street hairdressers on Wednesday suggested the world’s fifth-biggest economy was likely to shrink in the coming months because of Brexit uncertainty.
May and Corbyn may struggle to find a compromise position that can satisfy their own parties.
“I realise some of you will be concerned about the government discussing the way forward with the opposition,” May said in a letter to Conservative lawmakers on Wednesday.
“However, with some colleagues unwilling to support the government … this is the only way to deliver the smooth, orderly Brexit that we promised.”
A Labour spokesman said the party was ready for serious discussion if May was ready to relax the “red lines” she had so far set in negotiations.
Corbyn said any agreement that he struck with May – who has promised to resign if a Brexit deal is passed – must be set in law to guarantee that it could not be changed by any successor.


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Brexit

British PM Theresa May still aiming for a May 22 exit from European Union, despite political deadlock

Placards featuring Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May and opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn could be seen near the Houses of Parliament in central London on Wednesday Photo: AFP

FILE PHOTO: British Prime Minister Theresa May gives a news conference after a cabinet meeting following yesterday's alternative Brexit options vote, outside Downing Street, London, Britain April 2, 2019. Jack Taylor/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

epa07482268 A grab from a handout video made available by the UK Parliamentary Recording Unit shows British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn during Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons in Westminster, central London, Britain, 03 April 2019. PM Theresa May will meet Corbyn later to see whether there is common ground to break the Brexit deadlock. EPA-EFE/UK PARLIAMENTARY RECORDING UNIT MANDATORY CREDIT: UK PARLIAMENTARY RECORDING UNIT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES

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She is seeking to thrash out a Brexit compromise with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn


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British PM Theresa May still aiming for a May 22 exit from European Union, despite political deadlock

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}She is seeking to thrash out a Brexit compromise with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn

She is seeking to thrash out a Brexit compromise with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn