Theresa May asks EU for Brexit delay

We’re wrapping up our live coverage from London, where another dramatic Brexit day has come to a close.

We’ll be back tomorrow, when Prime Minister Theresa May will be in Brussels making her pitch to European Union leaders for an extension to Brexit until June 30. You can follow that here.

Prime Minister Theresa May might be the last person in Britain to think her Brexit deal isn’t dead. But, evidently, she thinks it might not be a bad idea for someone to call it an ambulance.

After a day of drama in Westminster and Brussels, May addressed the nation to say that despite writing to President of the European Council Donald Tusk to seek a Brexit delay, she was still determined to get her twice-defeated divorce deal approved by UK parliament.

There’s a lot more stick than carrot these days, and the fallout from that will worry members of her already divided Conservative Party. But the reality is that May is out of options.?

And if she’s going to get this thing done, that means threats. And make no mistake, that’s exactly how this will be seen by politicians on both sides of the Brexit divide.

May was blunt. Asking Members of Parliament if they want to leave the EU with a responsible deal; do they want to crash out with a potentially catastrophic no deal, or do they want to stop Brexit altogether?

The message couldn’t have been clearer: the delay is your fault and you are letting down the nation.

Sometimes, after days of political drama, it’s worth reflecting on where we have ended up.

As we go into the final EU summit before the UK leaves the EU, we knew that the UK needed to extend Article 50. The question was, how long could EU leaders swallow having Brits sucking up oxygen in Brussels?

Here in Brussels, the picture is still pretty damn murky.

Ever since it became known last week that the UK would request an extension of the article 50 process, it’s been all eyes on Brussels. The key question: exactly how long would EU leaders allow Brexit to be delayed? The picture is murkier than ever.

Early on Wednesday morning, Downing Street sources surprised everyone by leaking to journalists that May would request a short extension. All week, for reasons that should in retrospect be examined by all involved, the expectation was that in the absence of the withdrawal agreement being given the nod in parliament, May would ask for a lengthy extension.

After a day of blind panic about how the EU would respond, Tusk made it clear that he could cope with a short extension – probably shorter than May requested for various reasons – if it meant the withdrawal agreement getting approved.

But he would say that: it’s the EU’s preferred option by a mile. Why? They don’t want the UK hanging around, the EU has a list of problems as long as your arm to be getting on with.

Indeed, some European diplomats cannot quite believe that the UK is still dragging its heels over this and are privately angry at how many concessions were given to a country soon to be outside the union.

So it’s Meaningful Vote three, it seems. May’s Brexit deal might not be dead. And, despite everything, it might not even be dying. But if it doesn’t stop taking body shot after body shot, it’s running out of time to recover in any meaningful way.?

Here’s the full text of Theresa May’s statement:

Theresa May issued a stark warning to MPs on Brexit, telling them that the British public wanted them to “get on with it” and saying it was “high time” for them to take a decision.

“Parliament has done everything possible to avoid making a choice,” she said in her statement to the nation. “All MPs have been willing to say is what they do not want.”

Speaking from inside Downing Street, May said her divorce deal delivered on the result on the 2016 referendum, and was the best available.

“I am not prepared to delay Brexit any further than the 30th of June,” May added, as she repeated a pledge she made earlier today in the House of Commons.

May also again ruled out supporting a second referendum on Brexit, and she rejected the idea she should ask for a longer extension to the withdrawal process.

“That would mean asking you to vote in European elections” nearly three years after the referendum.

“What kind of message would that send,” she asked.

Theresa May begins her statement to the nation by saying she regrets that UK Parliament has been unable to support her Brexit deal.

“We will now not leave on time with a?deal on the 29th of March. This delay is a matter of great personal regret for me.”

“Of this I am absolutely sure – you, the public, have had enough.”

“I am on your side. It is now time for MPs to decide.”

British Prime Minister Theresa May is making a statement from Downing Street.

Britain is scheduled to leave the EU in just nine days. Here’s a summary of some key dates until then.

Thursday, March 21: May heads to Brussels for a two-day summit with European leaders, where she will make her case for them to grant an extension to the Brexit process until 30 June.

Saturday, March 23: The Prime Minister will return to Westminster to persuade MPs to back her deal. She needs to persuade 75 to flip in order for it to pass.

Monday, March 25: The government must table an amendable motion in the House of Commons in response to its second meaningful vote loss last week. MPs will then have the opportunity to press for votes on alternative Brexit options.

May is also expected to call a third meaningful vote on her Brexit deal next week.

Thursday, March 28: An eleventh-hour emergency EU summit could take place on Thursday if May’s deal is defeated for a third time and no other agreement has been reached.

Friday, March 29: Britain is still set to leave the European Union at 11 p.m. local time.

Independent Group spokesperson Chuka Umunna.

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn walked out of crunch Brexit talks with Prime Minister Theresa May because members of the breakaway Independent Group of MPs were present, Britain’s Press Association reported.

During Prime Minister’s Questions earlier today, Corbyn had urged May to meet with him to discuss his alternative Brexit plan.

But the Labour leader left talks when he saw that lawmakers from the Independent Group, which includes eight former members of his party, were involved.

“We’re in a crisis situation here where the people of this country expect representatives from different political groupings in Parliament to come together and actually try and chart a way forward,” Independent Group spokesperson Chuka Umunna told Sky News.

“That’s why the prime minister convened the meeting. I welcomed the fact that she did so.

“I think it’s a really extraordinarily behavior for the Leader of the Opposition to behave in really this very juvenile way when the moment demands that we all step up and engage in some serious dialogue to find a way through this chaos and this mess. But he’ll have to explain his actions.”

British Prime Minister Theresa May will address the nation at 8:15 p.m. local time (4:15 p.m. ET). Her statement comes a day before she meets European leaders in Brussels.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte says he has spoken to his German counterpart Angela Merkel and EU Council President Donald Tusk about Brexit. He’ll be talking to British Prime Minister Theresa May over the phone shortly, he added.

Rutte reiterated Tusk’s earlier insistence that any delay to Brexit be conditional on the House of Commons supporting May’s Withdrawal Agreement.

European Council President Donald Tusk has sent a letter to EU leaders ahead of tomorrow’s summit in Brussels. Brexit “will be the first topic of our discussions,” he writes.

Much of the letter repeats what Tusk said in his earlier news conference. Tusk reiterates: “I believe that we could consider a short extension conditional on a positive vote on the Withdrawal Agreement in the House of Commons.”

Read the full letter here.

Dominic Grieve, one of the leading Remainers in Theresa May’s party, has made an impassioned speech in the House of Commons in which he heavily criticized the government’s Brexit strategy.

“The process of Brexit has brought me face to face with the fact that the underlying integrity which one hopes one will continue to see from government, even in difficult circumstances, now seems to be fast running out,” Grieve said during the emergency debate over the Brexit delay.

“She spent most of her time castigating the House for its misconduct. At no stage did she pause to consider whether it is in fact the way she is leading this government which might be contributing to this situation,” he added.

Grieve noted that he has sympathy for May, and has been friends with her for some time. “But I have to say I could have wept,” he said. “Wept to see her reduced to these straits, and wept to see the extent to which she was now simply zig-zagging all over the place rather than standing up for what the national interest must be.”

His remarks were well-received from another one-time disillusioned Conservative backbencher, Anna Soubry, who quit the party last month in protest of its handling of Brexit.

Theresa May leaves for Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday.

Theresa May will hold meetings with the leaders of opposition parties from 6pm (2pm ET) tonight, a Downing Street spokesperson told CNN.

According to the spokesperson, May has also been meeting Cabinet ministers throughout the day and “may well” continue to meet with additional members of the Cabinet for the rest of the day.

Rumors have been circling Westminster this afternoon that May will make a public statement later this evening. The spokesperson did not deny those reports, but called them “purely speculation.”

Tusk talks to reporters at a press conference on Wednesday.

In his press conference, Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, made it clear that the EU would only approve a delay to the Brexit process if the House of Commons approves the Withdrawal Agreement signed by Theresa May last year. That suggests a third “meaningful vote” must be held in Parliament next week.

What that means: First, Theresa May needs to persuade Speaker John Bercow that her deal is sufficiently altered to allow another vote. Earlier this week he ruled that the government could not hold repeated votes on the same issue without substantive changes.

The government will hope that Tusk’s statement will be sufficient to satisfy Bercow’s demand.

After that, there’s the question of persuading MPs to support the deal.

Theresa May lost her first meaningful vote by a historic margin of 230 in January, and lost her second last week by 149.

May faces an uphill challenge to pass the deal a third time –?75 MPs will have to change their minds. The Prime Minister will hope that the looming and clear threat of no deal will force opposition MPs to support her deal.

The trouble is, there’s a small group of hardcore Brexit-supporting MPs on her own side who would be happy to see the UK crash out without a deal –?a clean break from the EU with no complications. Quite how she persuades them to get onside is unclear.

French President Emmanuel Macron won’t make a decision on Theresa May’s extension request before Thursday’s European Council meeting in Brussels, according to a spokeswoman for the Elysee.

The spokeswoman added that a report by Le Point magazine, which claimed the French President would reject any Brexit delay, “was wrong.”

?Le Point has since corrected its report.??

Donald Tusk has said a short delay to Brexit is possible, but will be conditional on the House of Commons passing the Withdrawal Agreement.

“The question remains open as to the duration?of such an extension,” Tusk, the President of the European Council, said.

Tusk said he spoke to Theresa May on the phone earlier this afternoon.

“May’s proposal of the 30 June, which has its merits, creates a series of questions of a legal and political nature,” he added. “Leaders will discuss this tomorrow.”

The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, is giving a press conference in Brussels.

Labour’s Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer has opened the emergency debate into the Brexit delay by quoting Theresa May’s de facto deputy David Lidington, who said last week that if May’s divorce deal was not passed by parliament, seeking “a short and, critically, one-off extension would be?downright reckless.”

Starmer says those statements led MPs to believe that May would request a long extension if she hadn’t passed her plan – but May has asked for a delay only until June 30.

He adds that the confusion is symptomatic of May’s Brexit strategy to date – to “put parliament as far away as possible from the process.”

John Bercow, the Speaker of the House of Commons, has granted an application from Labour’s Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer for an emergency debate on the Brexit delay.

If the debate goes to a vote and is passed by MPs, it would force Theresa May to change the wording of her letter to the EU and ask for a longer Brexit extension, rather than a short one.

Bercow, who stunned Westminster on Monday by ruling that May cannot bring back her Withdrawal Agreement for another vote unless it is substantially different, said emergency debates usually happen the following day, but given the circumstance he would allow it to begin soon.

France will veto Britain’s request to delay Brexit beyond March 29, unless Theresa May can demonstrate she has a credible plan to get her deal through parliament, according to French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.

“We want to send the British a simple and clear message – and Theresa May has said this in the past – there are only two options re leaving the European Union: ratify the deal or leave without an agreement,” Le Drian added.

The day began with anger. Officials in the UK and across Europe could not quite believe that Theresa May had blindsided them, requesting a short delay to the Brexit process (to June 30), rather than the long extension that had been expected.

Precisely why a longer delay had become so commonly accepted is a question worth asking. May never committed to one; neither did Parliament when it voted on a delay to Brexit last week.

Nevertheless, talk of an extension up to two years swirled – as did speculation about to how it such a delay could be seized upon politicians across the spectrum, and the continent. So when Downing Street confirmed that this was not the case, there was total meltdown.?

Fury then turned to confusion. There were reports that the House of Commons would force May to apply also for a longer extension. And there was confusion on the EU side, amid talk that the EU could flat-out reject May’s request for an extension.?

Into all of this waded European Commission, the body that dictates the political direction of the EU, with an advisory note stating that the choice about a Brexit delay was binary. A short extension would need to end before May 23, it said, otherwise a longer extension would need to go way beyond.

Why is that date significant? May 23 is the date that elections take place to the European Parliament, and the EU believes that if the UK is still a member state at that time, it is legally obliged to take part in those elections. The UK, apparently, disagrees: Theresa May told the Commons that she does not want the UK to take part in those elections, however believes that any such extension could carry on until June 30, the day before the new session of the European Parliament begins.

All that leaves open the question of whether EU leaders will throw out May’s request, or suggest something else.?At no point in the Brexit process has the EU’s next move been so unpredictable.?

Arguably, the most important question of today is whether any of this actually matters. Another date, far less talked about, is April 11, which is thought to be the day by which the UK will need to pass legislation allowing it take part in the European elections. That’s a lot earlier than May 23 and June 30.

The UK could be forced to sort its Brexit mess out sooner than it thinks.

This post has been updated to correct the date of European elections.

As the UK flirts with a no-deal Brexit in nine days’ time, a new report has outlined the financial impact the country has already taken since voting to leave the EU in 2016.

Financial services companies in Britain have announced plans to move ￡1 trillion ($1.3 trillion) into the European Union, according to consultancy EY. That’s up from an earlier estimate of ￡800 billion ($1.1 trillion).

Many banks have set up new offices in Germany, France, Ireland and other EU countries to safeguard their regional business after Brexit. That means they also have to move substantial assets there to satisfy EU regulators.

The number of jobs that will be relocated out of the United Kingdom in the near future stands at 7,000, according to EY. It estimates that will cost Britain at least ￡600 million ($794 million) in lost taxes.

Read more here.

There are signs of exasperation in EU capitals about the wording of Theresa May’s letter to the EU, asking for a three-month extension to the Brexit process. “Nothing has been solved with Theresa May’s letter,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said.

Maas added there would be a decision on Thursday regarding the request by the UK to delay Brexit, but said the EU wants to know “where this goes.”?

Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s chief Brexit coordinator, has responded to Donald Trump Jr.’s op-ed in the UK’s Daily Telegraph, which likened the result of the 2016 Brexit referendum to the election of his father as US President later that year.

Verhofstadt said both polls had been subject to “external manipulation” and both “have torn apart communities instead of bringing them together.”

Trump Jr. wrote that if Brexit was delayed, it would represent the death of democracy in the UK. He blamed “elites” who “control Britain from Brussels.”

Some commentators have interpreted a line in May’s letter to European Council President Donald Tusk, which she repeated at Prime Minister’s Questions, as a threat to resign if Brexit is subject to anything more than a short delay. This is the quote in question:

The suggestion is that this implies that May will resign if, for any reason, the UK is forced to delay the Brexit process beyond that date.

Former Labour cabinet minister and pro-Remain campaigner Andrew Adonis is pretty clear about what she meant.

The political editor of HuffPost UK, Paul Waugh, said he’d asked the Prime Minister’s official spokesman about the comments.

That’s not a denial.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker “formally warned” Prime Minister Theresa May against requesting an extension beyond May’s European Parliament elections, according to EC Spokesman Margaritis Schinas.

“Withdrawal has to be before 23 May, otherwise we face institutional difficulties and legal uncertainty. Elections have to be held if the extension is after 23 May,” Schinas added.

That could complicate matters. In May’s letter to Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, she requests a delay until June 30. That reflects differing legal opinions –?the UK appears to think that, since the new session of the European Parliament doesn’t begin until July 1, it can remain in the EU until before that date without holding elections.

May told MPs on during Prime Minister’s Questions earlier that holding European elections in the UK would be “unacceptable.”

Ian Blackford, the leader of the Scottish National Party, the third-largest in the House of Commons, called for a new Brexit referendum.

“Her deal has failed, this House has voted against no-deal – once again the Prime Minister is acting in her own self-interest, not in the interests of the whole of the UK,” Blackford said during PMQs.

May’s reply wasn’t a surprise. “Parliament gave the decision to the British people. It took place in a referendum in 2016 and the result of that referendum was that we should leave the EU.”

May, who has always opposed a second referendum, said it would destroy trust in politics. “I believe for people to be able to have trust in their politicians and faith in this Parliament, it is imperative that this Parliament delivers on the Brexit that people voted for,” she added.

Lawmakers have heavily criticized Theresa May’s Brexit strategy on Twitter after her letter to the EU asking for a short delay was published.

“This is a Prime Minister in the worst state of denial,” wrote Labour MP Yvette Cooper, who urged May to allow Parliament to hold indicative votes during Prime Minister’s Questions.

After Conservative Brexiteer Peter Bone said May was “betraying” the British people by asking for an extension, former Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron wrote: “And there’s the problem in a nutshell – the PM listens to Bone not Britain. We are dancing to the tune of extremists, not listening to the people.”

“She should definitely resign,” Labour’s Maria Eagle added.

A number of influential MPs from both sides of the House of Commons asked Theresa May during Prime Minister’s Questions to sanction a series of votes on alternatives to her Brexit plan – known as indicative votes. Those would allow MPs to set out their views on various different Brexit scenarios in order to lay out a path forward.

Conservative Party backbencher and pro-Remain MP Kenneth Clarke said that a short extension to Brexit would be “completely useless” if the desire of the House of Commons isn’t made clear. Clarke is the “father of the House” – the longest-serving MP –?and was a Cabinet member in the government of Margaret Thatcher.

Former Labour Party leader Ed Miliband added that May “is the roadblock to the House reaching a majority, not the facilitator of it.”

Labour MP Yvette Cooper, who has been closely involved in attempts to give Parliament greater control of the Brexit process, aded: “I beg this Prime Minister to think again.”

But May repeated that she will permit indicative votes. “The House has had many opportunities to put forward” what it wants, she said. “The House has voted on these issues and has rejected them.”

Theresa May told MPs that the House of Commons “has indulged itself on Europe for too long.”

Jeremy Corbyn shot back: “To describe the parliamentary process as one of indulgence doesn’t show much respect to the democratic process that sent us here in the first place.”

Some Labour Party MPs shouted “resign” from the backbenches as Theresa May answered questions.

Theresa May faces opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn in the House of Commons

A pro-Brexit MP from May’s own Conservative Party, Peter Bone, has fiercely criticized May’s decision to apply for an extension to the Brexit process.

May responds that Bone, a hardcore Brexiteer, has been consistent in challenging her on her repeated promises that the UK will leave the EU on March 29.

“I have always wanted us to leave on the 29th of March,” she responds. “But I believe it was better to leave with a negotiated deal.”

Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn called on Theresa May to compromise on her Brexit plan in order to get a withdrawal agreement through Parliament.

“Will the Prime Minister drop the red lines? Is she prepared to compromise to get through this crisis?” Corbyn asked.

May replied that the House has “voted on and rejected” a second referendum, a no-deal Brexit, Labour’s deal, and a departure that kept Britain in a customs union, but has “voted on and supported leaving with a deal”.

Downing Street has released the text of Theresa May’s letter to EU Council President Donald Tusk. It asks for an extension to the Brexit process until 30 June – after the European elections, which May says it would be “unacceptable” for the UK to take part in.

CNN’s Luke McGee notes two significant dates: May 23 and April 11.

Why this is important: Elections to the European Parliament are due to begin across Europe on May 23. Some legal experts suggest the UK can’t extend the Brexit process beyond this point without taking part in those elections. Others say the UK can remain in the EU until the new parliamentary session begins on July 1 – hence the UK’s request for a delay until the day before.

The second significant date is April 11. This is the date by which the UK Parliament must legislate to take part in those European elections. That means Brexit must be resolved one way or another by then.

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn began his questions to the Prime Minister by saying May has led the UK into a “full-scale national crisis.”

Corbyn adds that he will be meeting MPs today and leaders in Brussels tomorrow in an effort to break the deadlock. “Will the Prime Minister meet me today?” he asks.

May says she will meet with anyone to discuss Europe – but says “it’s a bit rich” for Corbyn to ask for another meeting, given that Corbyn had previously refused to meet May after her first “meaningful vote” on her deal was rejected.

Theresa May has told the House of Commons that the delay she has requested from the European Union will extend the Brexit process until June 30.

“I am not prepared to delay Brexit any further than the 30th June,” the Prime Minister said.

Taking part in May’s European elections would be unacceptable, and would not be in anyone’s interest, she added.

Prime Minister’s Questions is starting now in the House of Commons.

May’s all-important letter to the EU, asking for an extension to the Brexit process, still hasn’t been received in Brussels, a senior EU official told CNN.

That means European leaders have been unable to address the question of the delay, because it’s unclear exactly what May is asking them for.

May will head to Brussels to join EU leaders on Thursday, but time is running out for her request to be submitted and discussed before European leaders take a final decision.

And yet more uncertainty could follow Wednesday’s emergency debate in parliament, known as an SO24 – if the motion is approved by MPs, it would force May to change the wording of the letter to ask for a longer extension.

Speculation is brewing in Westminster over a move that could throw Theresa May’s Brexit plan into further chaos.

An application for an emergency debate on May’s Brexit extension request is set to be made later Wednesday, CNN has confirmed. If the debate goes ahead and is supported by lawmakers, it would force the Prime Minister to change the wording of her letter to the EU and ask for a longer Brexit extension, rather than a short one.

What this means: The application is set to be made by opposition Labour MP Alison McGovern. Emergency debates can be requested under Standing Order No. 24, or SO24.

If the Speaker of the House, John Bercow, approves the request, a debate and vote would follow on whether to force May’s hand.

The plan would need the support of the Labour front bench for it to succeed. Asked if the party would support the move, a spokesperson told the Press Association: “The Prime Minister should make a statement. If she doesn’t we will support all measures to force a debate in Parliament on this matter.”

If the emergency debate is supported, parliament would take control of the Brexit extension request – but ultimately, whether the requested extension is a long or short one, the final decision on whether to accept it still lies with the EU.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told German public radio that “the end of the road has now been reached” on Brexit. “There is no more ‘more,’” he said.

Asked by Deutschlandradio about a possible shorter extension period of Brexit, Juncker said: “These months in the end have to bring about an approval by the British Parliament for the present treaty text.

“If this does not happen and Great Britain does not leave at the end of March as foreseen, then we are – and I don’t like saying this – in God’s hands. But I believe God’s patience is wearing thin,” he added.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission, has told German public radio he does not believe a decision on Theresa May’s Brexit extension request will be made this week.

Speaking to Deutschlandfunk Wednesday morning, Juncker said he isn’t counting on a decision at the EU council meeting Thursday. There would likely be consultations again next week about a possible delay, he said.

According to DLF, Juncker said the EU had made large gestures towards Great Britain, and now London needs to provide clarity.

To date, the EU has stood firmly by the deal it reached with the UK – the so-called Withdrawal Agreement – insisting it was locked down and ready for Britain to approve.

But given the UK Parliament’s reluctance to do so, and the consequent prospect of a delay to Brexit, something interesting has happened. For the first time in the Brexit process, we are approaching a European Council summit where the behavior of the EU can’t easily be predicted.

The difficulty for the EU is that, long or short, any delay comes with complications. And this is where opinions in European capitals start to diverge.

If the UK hasn’t left the EU by May 22, it might have to take part in elections to the European Parliamentary elections – and if that happens, there is a real concern in Brussels that hardline euroskeptics could stand for election, in protest at Britain not yet having Brexited. ?An EU source recently told CNN?of worries in Brussels that?far-right figures like Tommy Robinson?could end up as Members of the European Parliament, with all the associated attention that brings.

But a shorter delay of just a few weeks brings its own problems. There is no guarantee that by the end of it, the UK Parliament would have given a thumbs-up to May’s deal. In reality, it could just mean a delay to a no-deal Brexit that almost everyone claims they want to avoid, but still remains the default legal position.

Read more of Luke McGee’s analysis here.

Donald Trump Jr. (left) and his father.

Theresa May “should have taken my father’s advice on Brexit,” Donald Trump’s son Donald Jr. has written in a British newspaper.

In an op-ed published in the?Telegraph, Trump Jr. bemoaned an expected delay to the Brexit deadline on March 29th,?blaming “elites”?who “control London from Brussels.”

Trump Jr. went on to say Brexit has?been delayed because?May “ignored advice from my father, and ultimately, a process that should have taken only a few short months has become a years-long stalemate, leaving the British people in limbo.”

Trump had advised May to sue the EU rather than negotiate with them, May revealed in July, shortly after the President’s visit to the UK.

It made for an?awkward press conference?at the Prime Minister’s official country house, Chequers, during the trip, where Trump said that May had found the advice too “brutal.”?

“It appears that democracy in the UK is all but dead,” Trump Jr. continued in his op-ed, comparing opponents of Brexit with US?“establishment elites.”

Downing Street had used the prospect of a lengthy delay – which could be used to force a second referendum – to try to persuade Brexiteer lawmakers that they risk losing Brexit altogether if they don’t vote for May’s deal.

That may all have been part of the plan – at least according to Downing Street’s chief Brexit negotiator Olly Robbins, who allegedly told colleagues in a Brussels bar last month that UK lawmakers will ultimately face a choice between the deal brokered by May or a long delay to Brexit, ITV News reported at the time.

But May faced a mutiny from Brexiteer members of her government this week if she formally requested a long delay from Brussels, and opted for a short extension instead.

CNN correspondents and producers go back to basics to guide you through everything you need to know about?Brexit?and the UK’s departure from the EU.

Theresa May is expected to formally request a short Brexit extension at a summit of EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday.

But any delay requires the unanimous approval of the European Council, the EU’s supreme decision-making body that includes the leaders of each member state. That means all 27 remaining EU member states must agree to delay Brexit beyond the end of the month.

If they can’t reach a unanimous decision, the UK will leave the European Union at 11 p.m. GMT on March 29.

That means Theresa May will have mere days to pass her Withdrawal Agreement – already rejected twice by parliament – or the UK will crash out of the EU without a deal.

Theresa May will not request a long delay to?Brexit?from European leaders, Downing Street says.

The embattled UK Prime Minister will only ask for a short extension to the process of leaving the European Union, a source at 10 Downing Street told CNN.

“There is a case for giving parliament a bit more time to agree a way forward, but the people of this country have been waiting nearly three years now,” the source said. “They are fed up with parliament’s failure to take a decision and the PM shares their frustration.”

May is meeting EU leaders?on Thursday in Brussels, where she is expected to request an extension to Article 50 – the legal process for Britain leaving the bloc – after parliament rejected her deal twice by substantial margins.

If an extension is agreed, the UK will avoid crashing out of the EU this month without a deal.