10:48

Sir Ivan Rogers, the UK’s former envoy to the EU, thinks Donald Tusk’s offer of an extension on condition that MPs approve the Brexit deal next week should help Theresa May. Speaking in Dublin last night, Rogers said:

That’s not unhelpful to her because in a sense it amplifies the message she’s been trying to give to people, which is: it really is my way or the abyss.

However, May’s requested extension raised the risk of no deal, he warned.

I’ve always thought the markets and the UK commentariat have underestimated the risks of no deal. Let’s not kid ourselves, there is a very serious chance that we end up with no deal in the summer because … we’ve run out of road, both sides have to a degree miscalculated the reaction from the other side, and we end up there because there’s nowhere else to go.

Rogers was talking to reporters after addressing the Institute of International and European Affairs.