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Theresa May Flip-Flops on Brexit, Seeks Labour Compromise

Rejects pleas from her own party for ‘Hard Brexit’ in 10 days.

Theresa May emerged from a seven-hour emergency meeting with her Cabinet on Tuesday to announce that she would request another Brexit delay in order to seek a compromise on a softer Brexit with the opposition Labour Party. May rejected the advice from the right-wing of her own party who demanded that she force through Brexit by April 12 without an agreed withdrawal deal with the European Union. That ‘Hard Brexit’ would have meant Britain was immediately free to control its own immigration and trade policies, but analysts and officials believe there would have been a harsh economic cost to abruptly severing decades of ties and integration with the EU. May invited Jeremy Corbyn to help devise a form of Brexit that would be acceptable to both parties—which would mean staying closely aligned to the EU—before asking Parliament to approve. Should the two leaders fail to reach an agreement, May said she would ask the House of Commons to vote on a series of alternatives. She said the government would abide by their decision. During a televised statement from No. 10, she said: “We can and must find the compromises that will deliver what the British people voted for. This is a decisive moment in the story of these islands and it requires national unity to deliver the national interest.”