PM downplays suggestion it will seek Brexit delay

LONDON — On the eve of more divisive votes in Parliament over Brexit, the British government on Wednesday downplayed a report that it plans to offer lawmakers a choice between backing Prime Minister Theresa May’s unpopular divorce deal and a delay to the U.K.’s exit from the European Union.

An ITV News correspondent, Angus Walker, said he overheard negotiator Olly Robbins in a Brussels bar saying the government would ask Parliament in late March to back her agreement, rejected by lawmakers last month, or seek an extension to the Brexit deadline.

May told lawmakers that Parliament had approved a two-year countdown to Brexit, and “that ends on the 29th of March. We want to leave with a deal, and that’s what we’re working for.”

Lawmakers overwhelmingly rejected May’s Brexit deal with the EU last month, and she is now trying to secure changes before bringing it back for another vote.

The EU insists it won’t renegotiate the legally binding withdrawal agreement, though it is still holding talks with Britain about potential tweaks to a nonbinding political declaration that accompanies it.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday that the EU wanted to “do everything for a deal, but it certainly it has to be a fair deal ... and we unfortunately still have a bit of work ahead of us.” If a deal is not approved by the British and European parliaments before March 29, the U.K. faces a messy sudden Brexit that could cause severe economic disruption.

Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay said the government wants to secure a deal, but is also preparing for a “no-deal” Brexit.

Opposition politicians have accused May of trying to fritter away time as the clock ticks down, in order to leave lawmakers with a last-minute choice between her deal and no deal.

Britain’s Parliament on Thursday will hold the latest in a series of debates and votes, in which pro-EU lawmakers will try to change the government’s course, ruling out a “no-deal” Brexit and aiming for close post-Brexit ties with the EU.