E.U. Approves Brexit Extension, but Chaotic Departure Still Looms – The New York Times

“At this point we would either leave with no deal, or put forward an alternative plan,” she said, adding that this would mean participating in European elections, something she described as “wrong.”

But it is possible that Parliament could vote to keep closer ties to the bloc — a so-called soft Brexit — and Mrs. May did not completely exclude that option, by saying she would work with lawmakers if they reject her deal.

Mrs. May refused to exclude the possibility of leaving the bloc without a deal.

But the growing sense of alarm over a “no deal” Brexit is real. And even if the deadline has been pushed back from March 29, it has not been pushed back very far.

”Our country is facing a national emergency,” the main British business and trade union groupings, the Confederation of British Industry and the Trades Union Congress, said in a rare joint statement.

“Decisions of recent days have caused the risk of no deal to soar,” the statement said. “Firms and communities across the U.K. are not ready for this outcome. The shock to our economy would be felt by generations to come.”

In Brussels on Thursday, European officials also were host to talks with Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the opposition Labour Party, which wants closer ties to the European Union than do Mrs. May’s Conservatives and could play a critical role in the way things unfold in London.

If Mrs. May, against the odds, does succeed in Parliament next week, then matters move relatively smoothly, with a modest delay to Brexit to allow for enacting legislation to put her plan in place. But the prime minister’s angry denunciation of lawmakers in a national address Wednesday evening is unlikely to make it any easier to win over opposition legislators.