May to MPs: Back my deal or face long Brexit delay

LONDON - British Prime Minister Theresa May has issued a stark warning to lawmakers that if they do not back her Brexit deal, there is the possibility the country "will not leave the European Union for many months, if ever".

Her appeal comes after a chaotic week in Parliament in which MPs twice massively rejected the Brexit deal May struck with EU leaders, even though only two weeks remain before Britain is due to leave the bloc.

Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, May said that if members of Parliament do back her deal before the European Council summit on Thursday, she would seek "a short technical extension" beyond the scheduled March 29 date to leave the EU.

Acknowledging it was "not an ideal outcome", May said "it is something the British people would accept if it led swiftly to delivering Brexit".

"The alternative if Parliament cannot agree the deal by that time is much worse", she said. For a start, Britain likely having to participate in European elections in May if there is a longer extension.

"The idea of the British people going to the polls to elect MEPs[members of the European Parliament] three years after voting to leave the EU hardly bears thinking about.

"There could be no more potent symbol of Parliament's collective political failure," she wrote.

May warned that if MPs failed to back her deal before the European Council summit, "we will not leave the EU for many months, if ever".

The prime minister struck her agreement with the EU in November after nearly two years of tortuous talks following the June 2016 British referendum to leave the bloc.

Lawmakers voted against the deal for a second time on March 12 but then voted against leaving the EU without a deal on Wednesday.

Agence France-Presse