EU leaders agree to delay Brexit until 31 October – as it happened

We’re going to wrap up the live blog. Here’s what happened overnight:

• EU leaders agreed to offer the UK an extension on article 50 until 31 October, which Theresa May has accepted.
  
• Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, said that until that deadline what happens will be in the hands of the UK. It can ratify the withdrawal agreement, and leave. It can change strategy, or it can decide to revoke article 50 and cancel Brexit. He says the UK will remain a friend of the EU and ended his press conference with an address to “our British friends”: “Please, do not waste this time.”
  
  
• There will be a “review” of the situation on 30 June, but Tusk said the point of the review was to inform EU leaders what was happening and was “not a cliff edge”.
  
  
• French President Emmanuel Macron said he took responsibility for blocking a long Brexit delay and convincing other European Union leaders to agree to a shorter one, saying he did so “for the collective good”.
  
  
• In a press conference after the agreement was reached, May said “the choices we now face are stark and the timetable is clear”. She acknowledged the “huge frustration” that the UK had not yet left the EU.
  
  
• May repeatedly ducked questions about her future as prime minister, after having previously said she would not accept an extension beyond June 30. She simply insisted that the UK “can still leave on May 22 and not hold those European parliamentary elections” if parliament passes the withdrawal deal.
  
  
• The prime minister will now head back to London to give a statement in the House of Commons in the early afternoon on Thursday. Now that the threat of a no-deal exit has gone, parliament has scrapped plans to force parliament to sit on Friday and next week.

Thanks for following along, I’ll be back in a few hours with an early Thursday Brexit liveblog as May returns to Britain and prepares to address the Commons.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday he took responsibility for blocking a long Brexit delay and convincing other European Union leaders to agree to a shorter one in order to preserve the functioning of the EU.

“It’s true that the majority was more in favour of a very long extension. But it was not logical in my view, and above all, it was neither good for us, nor for the UK,” he said.

“I take responsibility for this position, I think it’s for the collective good,” the French leader added before leaving the European Council in Brussels.

For those qui parlent français, the video of Macron’s comments is below.

View image in fullscreen

Jeremy Hunt has said the Conservative Party would not fare well in an election without Brexit having been delivered.

Speaking on ITV’s Peston, he said: “It would be absolutely catastrophic for us to face the people again in a General Election if we have not delivered Brexit, which was our central promise at the last election.”

Hunt was also asked whether he would honour any deals Theresa May agrees with Labour in coming weeks to get Brexit through parliament if he were to become prime minister.

“The reality is that to get the Brexit deal through, the Withdrawal Agreement bill has to be ratified in law and it is the contents of that bill that will constitute any cross party agreements that allows Parliament to vote that through, so it’ll be a matter of the law, not a matter of...”

Peston said: “Laws can change, Prime Ministers can change laws.”

“If they have a majority in parliament,” said Hunt. “It may have escaped your attention, Robert, that no-one has a majority in Parliament to change laws.”

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, said Labour was concerned that agreements it reached with May would not be honoured by a future Conservative leader.

“One of the key issues for us in the discussions, they are confidential discussions at the moment, but obviously the agenda included for us how do we entrench any agreement that we achieve… We’ve gone in there positively and constructively, we’ve been in there trying to secure a deal which we think would work. But we’ve always said clearly our big worry is if we can make a deal with Theresa May, what happens when she goes?

11 Apr 201921.18 EDT

Rowena Mason

Theresa May repeatedly ducked questions about her future as prime minister, after having previously said she would not accept an extension beyond June 30. She simply insisted that the UK “can still leave on May 22 and not hold those European parliamentary elections” if parliament passes the withdrawal deal.

May also once again blamed MPs for being the cause of public frustration over the failure to implement Brexit.

Asked whether she should apologise for the UK still being in the EU, she said: “Over the last three months I have voted three times to leave the European Union. If sufficient members of parliament had voted with me in January we would already be out of the European Union.”

The prime minister will now head back to London to give a statement in the House of Commons in the early afternoon on Thursday and it has scrapped plans to force parliament to sit on Friday and next week now the threat of a no deal Brexit has gone in the immediate term. The government will also have to lay a statutory instrument changing the date of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU to October 31.

This is Kate Lyons taking over from Andrew Sparrow.

First, some reaction from Scotland.

The SNP has released a statement urging the government to hold a fresh EU referendum and saying that Scotland has been ignored throughout the Brexit process and saying that the process shows “Scotland’s interests are best protected through independence”.

Commenting after the Brussels Brexit summit, Stephen Gethins MP said:

This is a watershed moment in the Brexit process. With the European Union agreeing to a further extension to Article 50, Theresa May must use this time to hold a fresh EU referendum with the option to Remain on the ballot paper.

It is welcome that we will not be crashing out on Friday but Scotland did not vote for Brexit and should not be forced to accept a Brexit deal put together by Labour and the Tories – parties that have ignored Scotland’s voice and interests every step of the way.

Following the outcome of this evening’s EU Summit, the presiding officer of the Scottish parliament has also issued a statement confirming that the Scottish parliament will not be recalled.

Rt Hon Ken Macintosh MSP, the presiding officer, said:

Following confirmation that the United Kingdom will not be leaving the EU on 12 April, I have taken the decision that Parliament will not be recalled.

Members have been made aware and Parliament is scheduled to meet again on 23 April 2019.

11 Apr 201921.02 EDT

Full text of May's statement

Andrew Sparrow

Here is the full text of Theresa May’s statement at her press conference.

I have just met with Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, where I agreed an extension to the Brexit process to the end of October at the latest.

I continue to believe we need to leave the EU, with a deal, as soon as possible. And vitally, the EU have agreed that the extension can be terminated when the withdrawal agreement has been ratified — which was my key request of my fellow leaders.

For example, this means that, if we are able to pass a deal in the first three weeks of May, we will not have to take part in European elections and will officially leave the EU on Saturday, 1st June.

During the course of the extension, the European council is clear that the UK will continue to hold full membership rights, as well as its obligations.

As I said in the room tonight, there is only a single tier of EU membership, with no conditionality attached beyond existing treaty obligations.

Let me conclude by saying this.

I know that there is huge frustration from many people that I had to request this extension. The UK should have left the EU by now and I sincerely regret the fact that I have not yet been able to persuade parliament to approve a deal which would allow the UK to leave in a smooth and orderly way.

But the choices we now face are stark and the timetable is clear.

So we must now press on at pace with our efforts to reach a consensus on a deal that is in the national interest.

Tomorrow I will be making a statement to the House of Commons.

Further talks will also take place between the government and the opposition to seek a way forward.

I do not pretend the next few weeks will be easy or that there is a simple way to break the deadlock in Parliament.

But we have a duty as politicians to find a way to fulfil the democratic decision of the Referendum, deliver Brexit and move our country forward.

Nothing is more pressing or more vital.

That’s all from me for tonight.

My colleague Kate Lyons is taking over now.

Q: Will your party see this deadline as a trick or a treat?

May says the UK could have been out by 29 March if MPs had backed her deal.

Now they must all work to get a majority in parliament, and to deliver on the referendum, she says.

Q: Tusk suggested the UK could get a further extension after October. Can you assure people Brexit will actually happen?

May says she is very clear that it must happen. She is working to get a majority in parliament.

And that’s it. The press conference is over.

Q: Yesterday 177 Tory MPs refused to accept your plan for an extension running until the end of June. Now you have agreed one until the end of October. How can you stay as party leader?

May says she wants to get an agreement as soon as possible.

Q: We could have left this week. You have promised we would be out by various dates, and now it is October. Don’t you owe the country and apology?

May says she has voted for her Brexit deal three times. She will continue to work to get it ratified as soon as possible.

Q: Can the 31 October be extended again? And what conditions are attached?

May says the UK will continue to abide by its obligations, and by the duty of sincere cooperation.

The deadline is now to achieve Brexit by October.