UK Prime Minister Theresa May will ask the European Union for a further delay to Brexit beyond April 12 to give her time to sit down with the opposition Labour Party in a bid to break the impasse over Britain's departure.
Nearly three years since the United Kingdom voted to leave the EU in a shock referendum result, British politics is in crisis and it is unclear how, when or if it will ever leave the European club it first joined in 1973.
A journalist in Downing Street watches UK Prime Minister Theresa May's latest statement. Source: AAP
In a hastily arranged statement from her Downing Street office after spending more then seven hours chairing crisis cabinet meetings on how to plot a way out of the Brexit maze, May said she was seeking a further extension to Brexit.
"Leaving with a deal is the best solution," May said from her Downing Street office in nationally-televised remarks.
"We will need a further extension to 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.
"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 ensure that we leave the European Union and that we do so with a deal."
To try to break the deadlock in parliament, May turned to Labour, led by Corbyn. Source: AAP
Within minutes of May reading her statement, Jeremy Corbyn offered a tentative response to May's announcement.
"We will meet the Prime Minister," he said. "We recognise that she has made a move, I recognise my responsibility to represent the people that supported Labour in the last election and the people who didn't support Labour but nevertheless want certainty and security for their own future and that's the basis on which we will meet her and we will have those discussions."
May's divorce deal with the EU has been defeated three times by the lower house of the British parliament, which failed on Monday to find a majority of its own for any alternatives.
The impasse has already delayed Brexit for at least two weeks beyond the planned departure date to 2200 London time on April 12.
EU leaders have been urged to show patience with Britain over its struggle to find majority support for a deal, the President of the European council Donald Tusk said in response to May's announcement.
"Even if, after today, we don't know what the end result will be, let us be patient," Tusk said on Twitter.
May said that if she could not agree a unified approach with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn then the government would agree a number of options on the future relationship with the EU and put them before the House of Commons in a series of votes.
The government, she said, would then abide by the decision of the House of Commons.
Her divorce deal with the EU has been defeated three times by the lower house of the British parliament, which failed on Monday to find a majority of its own for any alternatives.
The impasse has already delayed Brexit for at least two weeks beyond the planned departure date to 2200 London time on April 12.
Article 50 is the withdrawal notice May sent to Brussels in March 2017.
EU leaders have agreed to extend the original March 29 Brexit deadline until April 12 to avoid a chaotic "no-deal" ending to the 46-year EU-UK partnership.
May stressed that the 27 EU leaders would need to know why Brexit should be pushed back again before approving her request, which needs unanimous support.
"We need to be clear what such an extension is for to ensure we leave in a timely and orderly way," she said.
"This debate, this division, cannot drag on much longer."
May said she wanted to meet Corbyn "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".
There was no immediate response to her comments from the Labour leader.
The House of Commons has rejected May's divorce deal with Brussels three times and is currently trying to come up with an alternative way forward.
Its two initial attempts to reach a consensus on a Plan B have failed.
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