Theresa May is to ask the European Union for an extension to the Brexit deadline to “break the logjam” in the Commons.
Speaking after a seven-hour Cabinet meeting, the prime minister also said she wants to meet Jeremy Corbyn to agree a plan on the future relationship with the EU. The Labour leader said he was “very happy” to meet May.
The national unity move has already sparked criticism. The Times says May risks “Tory wrath” by working with Corbyn and The Sun says it shows she has “gone soft”.
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However, the angriest words have come from Tory Brexiteers. Iain Duncan Smith told Sky News: “We are just about to legitimise Corbyn”, while Boris Johnson accused May of “entrusting the final handling of Brexit to Labour”.
Jacob Rees-Mogg joined the chorus of condemnation, saying: “To allow the Labour party to run Brexit, to decide you'd rather be supported by a Marxist than by your own party, is unwise.”
An unnamed Tory MP said: “She has f***ed our party. She is f***ing Brexit. She is f***ing the country.” Some Conservative backbenchers are urging cabinet ministers to stage a mutiny and move to oust her immediately.
The prime minister is accused of ignoring the will of her Cabinet by ruling out a no deal Brexit. She faces the possibility of Cabinet resignations after 14 ministers begged her to keep no deal on the table rather than seek an extension.
But in her statement from Downing Street, May said she wanted a further extension to be “as short as possible”. The prime minister said she hoped to agree a new plan with Corbyn and put it to a vote in the Commons. She insisted that her withdrawal agreement would remain part of the deal.
She said: “I am offering to sit down with the leader of the opposition and to try to agree a plan - that we would both stick to - to ensure that we leave the European Union and that we do so with a deal.”
She added that if she and Corbyn do not agree a single way forward, she plans to put a number of options to MPs “to determine which course to pursue”.
However, the BBC's Europe editor Katya Adler points out that the EU would still have to agree to any extension and that they are preparing “pretty strict conditions” for any further delay.
The president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, has called for patience. Writing on Twitter, he said: “Even if, after today, we don’t know what the end result will be, let us be patient.”
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