Theresa May has arrived in Brussels to ask for a delay to Brexit until the end of June.

The Prime Minister will meet EU27 leaders later on Wednesday to press for a further extension of Article 50 to give her more time to pass the withdrawal agreement.

However, European leaders, including German chancellor Angela Merkel, have indicated Britain is likely to be offered a longer delay, until the end of the year or even next year.

May hopes the emergency Brexit summit will result in the UK getting a "break clause" for any extension, meaning the country could leave the EU once MPs have ratified her deal.

The UK is set to leave the EU at 11pm on Friday without a deal unless an extension is agreed, which requires the unanimous support of the 27 remaining EU states.

Arriving at the European Council meeting, the Prime Minister told reporters: "The purpose of this summit is to agree an extension, which gives us more time to agree a deal to enable us to leave the EU in that smooth and orderly way."

She added: "I have asked for an extension to June 30 but what is important is that any extension enables us to leave at the point at which we ratify a withdrawal agreement."

Before heading for the Belgian capital, May faced MPs at Prime Minister's Questions, with SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford accusing her and Labour of cooking up a "backroom deal" on Brexit.

The PM and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn held talks last week on achieving a compromise that could enable a Brexit deal to pass in the Commons, with cross-party negotiations ongoing.

Blackford said: "People can't have faith in a backroom deal cooked up by two leaders who don't possess the ingredients to hold their parties together, never mind hold these islands together.

"Scotland won't be forced to accept what these two Brexit parties are preparing to serve up."

He asked if May would "accept she has run out of road" in her "final days as prime Minister" and allow a second EU referendum.

She replied: "It is a little difficult for many of us in this House to hear him, week after week, say that the UK should stay within the EU when Scottish independence would have meant taking Scotland out of the European union."