Prime Minister To Visit Continent For Last Minute Brexit Talks

8 April 2019, 15:47 | Updated: 9 April 2019, 12:17

Theresa May is set to visit Paris and Berlin on Tuesday in an attempt to seek a last-minute agreement on Brexit.

During her European trip she will meet with Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel for urgent talks.

This comes a day before an EU summit in Brussels on Wednesday where an extension will be discussed and leaders will go over the latest developments on the UK's split from the EU.

If an extension is not agreed, the UK will leave the EU with no deal on Friday the 12th of April. 

The Prime Minister wants to push back the exit date until June 30th but, the UK will keep the option of quitting on the 22nd of May.

Speaking via a video message to the nation on Sunday, the PM said “compromise on both sides” of the Brexit debate was needed in order to break the deadlock.”

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said that “ we don’t have a majority in Parliament, and we have to look to other parties to seek an agreement that will allow us to get Brexit over the line in Parliament, as the law requires.” 

Labour says that, while it was invited to talks with the government last week, nothing changed on how the UK’s future relationship with how the EU would look.

EU leaders have said that the UK will have to offer something new in order to move talks along.

Greek Foreign Minister, Georgios Katrougalos said that the proposals Theresa May has brought to the table so far have been volatile and not concrete enough to be the basis of an agreement.

French President Emmanuel Macron said that it was it was up to the UK to present a “credible alternative plan backed by a majority” in Parliament before talks on Wednesday.

“People voted to leave the EU – we have a duty as a parliament to deliver that,” Mrs May said during the video message.

Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar has suggested that the EU leaders might choose to give the UK a flexible extension of up to a year.