UK opposition leader agrees to meet PM for Brexit talks

UK opposition Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn said on Tuesday he would be "very happy" to sit down with Prime Minister Theresa May and discuss a joint Brexit policy that could resolve the current impasse. This came after May decided to seek an extension from the European Union to give her time to forge a new approach and get her current deal with Brussels approved by parliament.

Earlier, Theresa May had said she will resign as Prime Minister once Brexit is delivered, according to a Conservative Party lawmaker in a meeting with her. “She will not be in charge for the next phase,” she told Conservative MPs. She did not give a date for her departure.

James Cartlidge, one of the MPs present at the private meeting at Westminster in London, told reporters, "She (May) said she would not remain in post for the next phase of the negotiations, the implication being that once the Withdrawal Agreement has passed, she would make way for someone else."

The latest development comes as MPs seize control of the Commons agenda to hold votes on alternatives to the deal.

In a major blow to May, MPs had voted through the debate earlier this week to seize control of the business of the House away from the government and set a new precedent in order to weigh up alternatives to the British Prime Minister's twice-defeated EU divorce bill through a set of "indicative" non-binding votes.

She faced further humiliation on Wednesday as the MPs' motion passed with 331 to 287 votes -- a majority of 44 -- setting the stage for votes on a series of Brexit alternatives later in the day.

May has already declined to commit herself to backing any option thrown up as a result of such a vote as it could prove “undeliverable”.

“I must confess that I am sceptical about such a process of indicative votes. When we have tried this kind of thing in the past, it has produced contradictory outcomes or no outcome at all...No government could give a blank cheque to commit to an outcome without knowing what it is," she told MPs.

However, she is under mounting pressure from all sides of the House, with her own party demanding her resignation as a price for backing her withdrawal deal and the Opposition Labour Party accusing her of failure by running down the Brexit clock to leave MPs with very little time to debate options.

In the current scenario, the Commons entered into uncharted territory on Wednesday when it first debated a business motion put forward by former Conservative Party minister Oliver Letwin, who is being dubbed "Prime Minister for the day" as he is in charge of setting the course for the debate.