Theresa May held crisis talks with Angela Merkel today amid claims the EU wants to delay Brexit by two years to avoid no-deal chaos.
With no sign of a breakthrough in wrangling over the Irish border backstop and a Tory Remainer revolt threatening to spiral out of control, the PM met the German Chancellor for breakfast at a summit in Egypt.
The latest frantic diplomacy comes after Mrs May admitted she has yet to secure a revised deal - and said a final vote on a package might not happen until just 17 days before the UK is due to leave the EU.
She has been left pleading for Remainer ministers not to crash her strategy by joining efforts to force a Brexit delay in crunch votes on Wednesday.
But there are few signs that she can hold back the rebellion, after ministers openly threatened to defy her, warning that the 'dam is breaking'.
Amid the bitter standoff, senior EU officials are believed to be preparing for a longer extension to the Article 50 process than the few months being mooted by Remainers.
The idea could see the UK stay a member for another 21 months to avoid a 'cliff edge' and give more time for a deal to be reached - or better preparations to be made for no deal.
The issue of postponing Brexit came up 'fleetingly' during the discussions between Mrs May and Mrs Merkel today, according to Downing Street. But a spokesman said the PM simply repeated that she wanted the UK to leave with a deal on March 29.
Mrs May will meet other leaders including Irish PM Leo Varadkar in Sharm El-Sheikh later, where she is attending a joint EU-Arab League summit.
Overnight Mrs May said she was making progress in talks but not enough to hold a second 'meaningful vote' this week. Instead she set a new deadline of March 12 to win approval of a plan that suffered a shattering Commons defeat last month.
This means pro-Remain ministers will now have to decide whether to follow through with threats to defy Mrs May and vote for a backbench bid on Wednesday to postpone the Brexit date.
If the backbench motion is passed, Mrs May would have until March 13 to get her plan through Parliament or be forced to seek a delay in the process.
That would set up a showdown on March 12 when Eurosceptics could be asked to back a deal they dislike or face the possibility of Parliament forcing a postponement of Brexit the following day.
In a possible escape clause for Mrs May, a rival amendment has been tabled by Tory moderates. It is similar to the Cooper-Boles plan, but watered down to be non-binding on the government and suggesting a Brexit delay until May 23.
It has emerged that the EU may insist that Brexit is delayed until the start of 2021 if the UK requests an extension of Article 50.
The idea is apparently favoured by the EU's top civil servant Martin Selmayr among others, although it could face intense resistance from Brexiteers.
One official told the Guardian: 'If leaders see any purpose in extending, which is not a certainty given the situation in the UK, they will not do a rolling cliff-edge but go long to ensure a decent period to solve the outstanding issues or batten down the hatches.
'A 21-month extension makes sense as it would cover the multi-financial framework (the EU's budget period) and make things easier.'
Before making her announcement on the vote schedule yesterday, Mrs May was warned by officials that delaying a showdown on her revised deal would all but guarantee postponing Brexit day beyond March 29.
Civil servants have told the PM there is unlikely to be enough time to pass Brexit legislation, the Mail understands.
One minister told the Telegraph if the deal goes through at that point the PM would be likely to ask for a two-month extension to Article 50.
Another option presented to the PM by the No10 Europe Unit were to hold a vote on the deal this week - with the likely result it was lost.
A second option was of an indicative vote on whatever concession is likely to be secured from Brussels.
Mrs May's dramatic gamble came 24 hours after Amber Rudd, David Gauke and Greg Clark signalled they could quit the Cabinet this week to back the backbench move themselves unless a withdrawal agreement is in place.
At least a dozen more ministers are considering their positions – potentially enough to allow the motion proposed by Labour's Yvette Cooper and Tory Sir Oliver Letwin to pass.
Defence minister Tobias Ellwood told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he believed the PM was 'listening' and suggested she could announce a delay in the Commons tomorrow.
'You need to wait and hear what she has to say when she gets back,' he said.
That, I don't know. I'm encouraging that to happen because it's not in anybody's interest to see no deal.'
He also posted on Twitter: 'The penny is dropping, the tide is turning, the dam is breaking.
'Choose your metaphor - if there's no Parliamentary agreement soon, more and more colleagues are calling for an Art 50 extension rather than crashing out without a deal.'
Writing in the Daily Mail at the weekend, Ms Rudd, Mr Gauke and Mr Clark warned that 'if there is no breakthrough in the coming week' there was a clear majority in Parliament to delay Brexit rather than 'crash out'.
The ministers, who all campaigned for Remain, described No Deal as disastrous, saying it would 'see us poorer, less secure and potentially splitting up'. Their intervention led Eurosceptic MPs to call for them to be sacked.
Speaking on a flight to an EU-Arab League summit in Egypt, the Prime Minister insisted she still believed that 'no deal is better than a bad deal'.
But she refused to criticise the rebel trio and ducked questions about whether the fragile state of her Government made the ministers 'unsackable'.
Mrs May said: 'Collective responsibility has not broken down. What we've seen around the Cabinet table, in the party, in the country at large is strong views on the issue of Europe. That's not a surprise to anybody.
'We have around the Cabinet table a collective, not just responsibility, but desire to actually ensure we leave the EU with a deal. That's what we're working for, that's what I'm working for.
'We've been having positive talks with the EU. As you know we were in Brussels last week, my team will be back in Brussels again this coming week. They will be returning to Brussels this Tuesday.
'As a result of that we won't bring a meaningful vote to Parliament this week, but we will ensure that happens by March 12. It is still within our grasp to leave the EU with a deal on March 29. And that's what we're working to do.'
Mrs May is holding talks with Angela Merkel today in the hope the German chancellor can break the deadlock in Brussels.
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith last night said that by delaying the meaningful vote, Mrs May was effectively 'calling the bluff' of the Cabinet rebels.
'They are smashing the whole concept of government,' he said.
'If they resign and this Brexit delay goes through then we will end up in a general election and these people need to be deselected because they are going to be responsible for delivering a Corbyn government.'
Miss Cooper's plan would enable Parliament to take control and pass legislation requiring the Government to extend Article 50 if there is no agreement by March 13.
The timeline is almost identical to one set out by Mrs May's chief Brexit negotiator Olly Robbins when he was overheard discussing the Government's strategy in a Brussels bar this month.
A senior Brexiteer last night described this as 'Hobson's choice' but added: 'We are not there yet.'
Sir Keir Starmer, Labour's Brexit spokesman, described the latest delay as 'the height of irresponsibility' and accused the PM of 'recklessly running down the clock in a desperate attempt to force MPs to choose between her deal and no deal. Parliament cannot stand by and allow this happen.'
EU Council president Donald Tusk is said to be resistant to the idea of a short extension, fearing the two sides could find themselves still deadlocked in a few months' time. Mr Tusk, who held talks with Mrs May in Egypt last night, warned the PM that EU leaders remained concerned she could not command a majority for her deal in Parliament.
An EU diplomat told The Guardian: 'If leaders see any purpose in extending, which is not a certainty given the situation in the UK, they will not do a rolling cliff-edge but go long to ensure a decent period to solve the outstanding issues or batten down the hatches. A 21-month extension makes sense as it would cover the multi-financial framework [the EU's budget period]. Provided leaders are not completely down with Brexit fatigue, and a three-month technical extension won't cut it, I would expect a 21-month kick of the can.'
Labour's deputy leader launched a savage attack on Jeremy Corbyn yesterday as he warned a failure to deal with anti-Semitism had plunged the party into crisis.
Tom Watson said Mr Corbyn had to 'change very, very rapidly' to stop more MPs from following the nine who quit the party last week.
He also revealed he had handed the party leader a dossier of 50 cases where no adequate action had been taken over racist comments on social media about Jewish individuals.
In a TV interview, he demanded Mr Corbyn take personal charge of rooting out anti-Semitism because the 'party machine' had failed. And he urged him to change tack on Brexit and push for a second referendum.
'The departure of our colleagues is a real blow, and we need to understand why they felt the need to go. Because if we're going to be in government we need to address those concerns.
'For us to hold this party together, things have to change. There's almost a crisis for the soul of the Labour Party now. I absolutely fear that we will lose more parliamentary colleagues. We may lose peers from the House of Lords, and we may lose members and councillors and I don't want that to happen.'
Mr Watson said Luciana Berger, the Liverpool Wavertree MP who left for the Independent Group last week, had been 'bullied out of the Labour Party by a small number of racist thugs' and he was 'very very sad to see her go'.
Hard-Left activists, he said, were causing irreparable harm by 'pouncing' on MPs, and bullying them on social media. Details of the anti-Semitism dossier, seen by the Mail, show it included vicious racist abuse. One said of Jewish Labour MPs: 'I don't know what runs through their veins, not human blood.'
Mr Watson said Labour general secretary Jenny Formby's attempts to combat anti-Semitism had 'very patently not been adequate' and Mr Corbyn should take a personal lead.
On Brexit, he said Mr Corbyn needed to 'reunify our party' and move towards a second referendum.
He also called for more centrist Labour MPs to be given jobs on the front bench and said he was going to set up a new 'social democratic' group of moderates to develop policies. In an interview with Sky News on Friday night, Mr Corbyn said he did not believe bullying existed in Labour on a wide scale.
When confronted with quotes from prominent Jews accusing him of not doing enough, he said there were 'very many other people in the Jewish community' who were happy.
A Labour Party spokesman said: 'The Labour Party takes all complaints of anti-Semitism extremely seriously and we are committed to challenging and campaigning against it in all its forms. All complaints about anti-Semitism are investigated in line with our rules.'
This article has been adapted from its original source.
