Brexit news: Theresa May tells MPs to ‘get on with it’ as she turns up pressure on parliament to force through deal
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Your support makes all the difference.Theresa May has risked the anger of MPs after she blamed them for forcing her to ask the EU for a "short delay" to Brexit.
In a letter to European Council president Donald Tusk, the prime minister asked for a three-month extension to Article 50 negotiation process, pushing the scheduled date to leave the EU from 29 March to 30 June.
However Mr Tusk put his foot down, saying he would grant the delay but only if MPs backed Ms May's Brexit deal.
Some hours later Ms May used a televised address to accuse the Commons of having tried everything to avoid making a decision on whether it wanted to leave the block with a deal, crash out without one or not leave at all.
From Downing Street she told voters she was "on your side", adding that she believed "You're tired of the infighting, you're tired of the political games and the arcane procedural rows, tired of MPs talking about nothing else but Brexit when you have real concerns about our children's schools, our National Health Service, knife crime."
"You want this stage of the Brexit process to be over and done with. I agree," she said.
In response the PM was accused of being "toxic" and even of risking her colleagues' safety.
It meant that Ms May must now find a way of putting her deal before parliament for the third time, with no clear evidence that MPs will back it after twice voting it down by crushing margins.
If the deal fails again there is a significant chance she could resign, having told MPs earlier in the day she could not be the leader to impose a lengthy delay to Brexit.
See below how we covered the day's events live
Here is our political correspondent Ben Kentish with the full story on Jeremy Corbyn's exit from the joint leaders' meeting earlier:
Ms May says that the delay to Brexit is "a matter of great personal regret for me".
She adds: "You the public have had enough. You're tired of the infighting, you're tired of the political games.
"I'm on your side."
Not leaving the EU would cause "irreparable" damage to trust in the UK's political culture, she says.
Parliament has done "everything possible" to avoid making a choice of whether it wants to leave with a deal, without one, or not at all, the PM adds.
A longer extension would mean "asking you to vote in European elections nearly three years" after people voted to leave the EU, Ms May says.
The country "desperately needs bringing back together", she adds, and participating in EU elections would be "divisive".
This speech is very much a pitch directly to the British public. No new substantial developments were introduced.
Ms May laid the blame for what she has called a national "crisis" firmly at the feet of MPs across the Commons.
She directly addressed voters as "you", playing heavily on a perceived popular frustration with the state of Brexit, and hinted only very briefly at the wave of criticism that has been aimed at her.
Essentially, as far as Ms May is concerned, nothing has changed – she wants MPs to vote through her deal and thinks that is the best route.
Following John Bercow's ruling that she cannot merely bring back the same proposition to parliament to vote on, the PM is now ratcheting up the pressure on MPs.
A fuller version of Ms May's attack on MPs.
She said: "So far parliament has done everything possible to avoid making a choice. All MPs have been willing to say is what they do not want," she said.
"I passionately hope MPs will find a way to back the deal I have negotiated with the EU.
"I will continue to work night and day to secure the support of my colleagues, the DUP and others for this deal. But I am not prepared to delay Brexit any further than 30 June."
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