Theresa May has risked the anger of MPs after she blamed them for forcing her to ask the EU for a "short delay" to Brexit.
In a letter to European Council president Donald Tusk, the prime minister asked for a three-month extension to Article 50 negotiation process, pushing the scheduled date to leave the EU from 29 March to 30 June.
However Mr Tusk put his foot down, saying he would grant the delay but only if MPs backed Ms May's Brexit deal.
Some hours later Ms May used a televised address to accuse the Commons of having tried everything to avoid making a decision on whether it wanted to leave the block with a deal, crash out without one or not leave at all.
From Downing Street she told voters she was "on your side", adding that she believed "You're tired of the infighting, you're tired of the political games and the arcane procedural rows, tired of MPs talking about nothing else but Brexit when you have real concerns about our children's schools, our National Health Service, knife crime."
"You want this stage of the Brexit process to be over and done with. I agree," she said.
In response the PM was accused of being "toxic" and even of risking her colleagues' safety.
It meant that Ms May must now find a way of putting her deal before parliament for the third time, with no clear evidence that MPs will back it after twice voting it down by crushing margins.
If the deal fails again there is a significant chance she could resign, having told MPs earlier in the day she could not be the leader to impose a lengthy delay to Brexit.
See below how we covered the day's events live
Those months would have to produce, as an end result, an agreement from the British Parliament to the (Agreement) text which is before them.If that doesn't happen, and if Great Britain does not leave at the end of March, then we are, I am sorry to say, in the hands of God. And I think even God sometimes reaches a limit to his patience."
We will probably have to meet again next week, because Mrs May has not got agreement for anything either in her Cabinet or her Parliament.As long as we don't know what Great Britain will say Yes to, we can't come to a resolution."
Speaking on the BBC Today programme, he said:
I don't see how a long delay gives certainty, actually, we've had a long time already. Unless and until a deal is finalised there remains the prospect, the risk, of no deal.
In terms of timing there has already been two-plus years to do this and I think people are a bit tired of waiting for Parliament to get our act together and get the deal passed."
Here is a quick look at our top story - Downing Street has confirmed that Theresa May will write to EU chiefs requesting a "short" delay to Brexit.
Read the report from The Independent's Ashley Cowburn:
EU chief Michel Barnier gives UK ultimatum – ‘If you want to delay Brexit, you need a new plan’
Theresa May’s plans were dealt a blow after only a ‘new event or new political process’ can secure an extension to the Article 50 periodAnna Soubry, the former Tory MP who now sits with the Independent Group, has described the current situation as a "crisis".
Speaking on the BBC Today programme she said: '"What happened yesterday was the prime minister made the case in cabinet for a long extension and it’s quite obvious why she has now changed her mind.
…She has only changed her mind, because yet again she has put the interests of her party and the calls from the hard right-wing Brexiteers in her party over and beyond her duty of the national interest."
"It's absolutely essential we're out of the EU before the European elections. It would be extraordinary for the people who voted to leave the EU to find us fielding candidates for these next elections...
She's absolutely working her socks off to get to that point, so, in seeking a short extension, she and her Cabinet will be determined to get further progress on the Meaningful Vote so we can get her deal voted through in Parliament."
Delia Smith, the chef and TV presenter, and actors Sir Patrick Stewart and Steve Coogan, and Armando Iannucci, creator of the Thick of It, have stepped in to help marchers attend the “Put it to the People March”.
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