British Prime Minister Theresa May says she will seek a further delay to the country’s exit from the European Union to allow more time for parliament to pass a deal on the terms of its withdrawal.
To date, British lawmakers have three times rejected the deal that May’s negotiators agreed to after two years of talks with the EU.
“So we will need a further extension of Article 50, one that is as short as possible and which ends when we pass a deal. And we need to be clear what such an extension is for, to ensure we leave in a timely and orderly way,” May said Tuesday. “Today I am taking action to break the logjam.”
She said she is willing meet with Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the main opposition Labor Party, to try to agree on a Brexit plan that lawmakers could agree to.
Britain was originally due to leave the bloc by March 29, but May got approval from the EU for a short extension to give her government more time to find a solution parliament could support.
While the process dragged on, parliament sought its own path forward, but in a series of votes Monday lawmakers struck down four possible paths forward. The closest that came to passing was a proposal to have Britain withdraw from the EU, but remain in a customs union.
The latest deadline set by the European Union is April 12. If British leaders have still not agreed to a plan, then European Union chief negotiator Michel Barnier says the only choices at that point will be for the country to exit with no deal or try to get the other EU members to agree to a longer extension.