Minister urges divided UK MPs to find Brexit consensus

A senior government minister called Saturday for British MPs from all parties to “forge a consensus” on Brexit to avoid a potentially damaging “no deal” withdrawal from the EU in March.

Work and pensions minister Amber Rudd said Brexit could succeed “if politicians are willing to try a different way and only if a coalition of those who want what’s best for this country argue a little less and compromise a little more”.

Her comments, in an article in the Daily Mail newspaper, come after Prime Minister Theresa May returned from an EU summit without the reassurances she said she needed to get her Brexit deal through the House of Commons.

Few people now believe the agreement, forged over 17 months of tough negotiations with Brussels, will pass in a vote of MPs planned for January.