Theresa May has asked Brussels to extend the Brexit deadline to June 30 and has rejected the option of a second referendum.
With little more than a week before the UK is due to leave, Mrs May was forced to ask for an extension after failing to get her divorce deal through Parliament.
Politicians continue to bicker over Brexit, whether to leave at all, whether to hold a second referendum and the nature of a withdrawal agreement.
In a Downing Street address on Wednesday evening, Mrs May blamed MPs for the Brexit impasse, “It is high time we made a decision,” she said. “So far, Parliament has done everything possible to avoid making a choice.”
“Some argue that I am making the wrong choice, and I should ask for a longer extension to the end of the year or beyond, to give more time for politicians to argue over the way forward.
"That would mean asking you to vote in European Elections, nearly three years after our country decided to leave. What kind of message would that send?"
May said that a European election campaign would not help bring not help unite the country and that a second referendum would go against the will of the public.
Earlier on Wednesday, the British prime minister asked the European Union to delay Brexit until June 30 after failing to get her deal through parliament.
Mrs May has said previously that if parliament does not pass her deal, she would be forced to ask for a delay beyond June 30, which would mean the UK has to take part in European elections and Brexit supporters fear that could scupper the whole project.
The EU Commission said any extension would last to May 23 to avoid the UK participating in European elections but that if Britain held the European elections, an extension could be granted to the year end.
Jean-Claude Juncker welcomed the extension request and Donald Tusk, the European Council's president said EU leaders could only agree to a Brexit delay if British MPs support Mrs May's deal in a vote next week.
May requested a short delay as she detailed her plans to launch a third attempt to push her deal through parliament.
Remainers plan to stage a rally in London on Saturday in a bid for a new referendum to reverse the 2016 result.
YouGov reports that 52% of respondents in a new survey would back an extension and that 56% would vote to remain in a second referendum.
Comments
We have a Prime Minister who is politically incompetent. Nearly three years after the Referendum vote, she is still begging the question (i.e. How do you want to leave? rather than Do you want to leave at all?).
Even the Brussels bureaucrats scratch their heads in bewilderment - they cannot work out what she is doing. She cannot afford to sack ministers (like Failing Grayling and Useless Brady) because she needs their support. So other unresolved governmental issues are piling up expensively.
Parris was right. She does not command support or respect. She cannot delegate. She is an incompetent manager. She is the Death Star of British politics.
No she doesn't.
She actually crawls on her knees to beg the EU to extend it and Tusk tells her they will only consent if we agree to her Remainer deal.
Meanwhile the whole EU project falls apart. Bankrupt southern states, legal action against Poland and Hungary, Yellow Vests in France, riots in Spain, the rise of right wingers in Holland, Italian banks moving their funds to Germany in preparation to the New Deutschmark when the Euro collapses...
You are no doubt British and perhaps your comments are intended to be funny, but they are so not funny.
Our country is in a mess and we are the laughing stock of Europe, because the people that represent us can't agree on how to leave the European Union.
If only "little Britain" had Greek and Roman "Greco Roman" blood running through their vains, they may have found enlightenment before now and cleared this horrid mess of brexit up.
Nothing changes either way! What we see now is just circus.
Echoing recent Portuguese judgements only the other day we read of Italian judges rewarding femicidal husbands and lovers. One a woman judge herself consoling an ex-husband for killing his wife as she would not leave her lover with the words "I can understand how you felt". 60 years of EU values still not impacting on Italian judges, so far too soon to be hoping for evolved progress with 'only' 30 years in the EU Portuguese judges!
It is quite possible that since the Referendum, people may have changed their minds (in either direction). Mrs May certainly did, since she was originally a Remainer.
The real problem is that Britain has a representative democracy, and it is in the Commons that this decision should be made. And yet, "Remain or Leave?" is the only question not put to the House. MPs feel that they are being taken for granted, and that the PM is begging the question. No wonder they will not do what she tells them to do.
This important issue should be put to a vote in the Commons, and people would accept the result. We should then get some peace.