BRITISH Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday chaired several hours of cabinet meetings in an attempt to plot a course out of the Brexit commotion.

Report says she comes under pressure to either leave the European Union without a deal or call an election.

Almost three years since the UK 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 club it first joined in 1973.

May’s deal 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 alternative to her deal.

May is expected to try to put her deal to a fourth vote this week.

The deadlock has already delayed Brexit for no less than two weeks beyond the planned departure date of March 29 and May chaired a cabinet meeting in Downing Street in a bid to find a way out of the maze.

“Over the last days a no-deal scenario has become more likely, but we can still hope to avoid it,” EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said in Brussels.

Barnier said Britain could still accept the stalled deal negotiated by May, reiterating it was “the only way” for Britain to leave the bloc in an orderly way.

If May cannot get her deal ratified by parliament then she has a choice between leaving without a deal, calling an election or asking the EU for a long delay to negotiate a Brexit deal with a much closer relationship with the bloc.

“I hope that we can still find a solution. The British parliament has said itself that it doesn’t want a disorderly Brexit,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said.

The third defeat of May’s withdrawal agreement on Friday, the date the UK was originally scheduled to leave the EU has left the weakest British leader in a generation facing a spiralling crisis.

The British electorate, its two major parties and May’s cabinet are all divided over Brexit and May risks ripping her Conservative Party apart if she tilts towards a closer post-Brexit relationship with the EU or leaving without a deal.

Media reports say if she backs or rejects such a move, she could face resignations. (Reuter/NAN)

– Apr. 2, 2019 @ 12:59 GMT |