The President of the European Council has said he will be appealing to European leaders to keeping open mind about offering the UK a “long extension" to the Brexit process.

In a tweet in the last hour Donald Tusk said he will use his consultations with leaders ahead of the next EU Summit to urge leaders to back the extension “if the UK finds it necessary to rethink its Brexit strategy and build consensus around it.”

During my consultations ahead of #EUCO, I will appeal to the EU27 to be open to a long extension if the UK finds it necessary to rethink its #Brexit strategy and build consensus around it.

— Charles Michel (@eucopresident) March 14, 2019

It comes as British MPs prepare to vote on whether to ask for a delay to the process.

Last night, the House of Commons voted in favour of a motion ruling out a planned ‘no-deal’ Brexit.

The UK will still crash out without a deal unless something else is agreed between now and March 29^th – however MPs have now explicitly said that they do not support this happening.

Downing Street has agreed to offer Tory MPs a free vote on the potential extension to the Article 50 process.

British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks during the no-deal Brexit vote in the House of Commons, 13-04-2019. Image: Xinhua News Agency/PA Images

Difficult choices

After the vote last night, UK Prime Minister Theresa May said the House of Commons now faces some difficult choices.

"The legal default in UK and EU remains that the UK will leave the EU without a deal unless something else is agreed,” she said.

"The onus is now on every one of us in this house to find out what that is.

"The options before us are the same as they always have been.

"We could leave with the deal which this government has negotiated over the past two years.

"We could leave with the deal we have negotiated that is subject to a second referendum - but that could risk no Brexit at all, damaging the fragile trust between the British public and the members of this house.

"We could seek to negotiate a different deal; however, the EU has been clear that the deal on the table is indeed the only deal available."

Brexit

Mrs May is now urging her colleagues to back a three-month delay to the process, or potentially face a much longer one.

Today’s vote will ask MPs if they want to ask the EU for a short delay to allow time to back to pass legislation – provided they back the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement when it goes before the House for the third and final time next Wednesday.

If today’s vote is passed but the deal is still defeated next week, Mrs May will face the prospect of returning to the EU to ask for an extension with no clear pathway forward.

She has warned her colleagues that, in this scenario, the EU is likely to demand a much longer extension - potentially running to as long as two years.

She said that this longer extension would "undoubtedly require the United Kingdom to hold European Parliament elections in May 2019" – something that would infuriate Brexiteer politicians.