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The prime minister is expected to allow her Cabinet to discuss extending the deadline beyond March 29 at a crunch meeting on Tuesday, one of the people said. She would then reveal the Cabinet’s conclusions in an announcement to Parliament later in the day.
May is likely to carry on trying to get a deal done on time. But if no agreement is reached in the next month, a delay of some kind would be needed.
Allowing the U.K.’s scheduled exit from the EU to be postponed would be a huge political gamble. On one hand, it would avert mass resignations from pro-EU ministers in May’s team, and potentially a defeat in Parliament this week. But it would also risk a destabilizing backlash from euroskeptic Conservatives.
A delay would be a major climbdown for the British leader, who has spent the past two years insisting that the U.K. will leave the EU on schedule. It comes within hours of another major U-turn: that of opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn deciding to back a second Brexit referendum.
Together, the announcements will make pro-Brexit politicians fear that the divorce could eventually be abandoned. May could even use that fear to her advantage, to persuade them to back her deal rather than risk seeing Brexit reversed. [...]