Jean-Claude Juncker threw Theresa May a lifeline today as he said Britain could still leave the EU on May 22 without holding EU elections if she passes the deal next week.

The EU Commission President said Mrs May’s new strategy would work if her decision to accept cross party talks and pivot to soft Brexit pays off.

The PM is meeting Jeremy Corbyn this afternoon in a desperate final scramble to get her battered divorce deal over the line.

If the two can agree a basis to renegotiate the political declaration on the final UK-EU relationship, Mrs May hopes to use it to pass her deal at the 11th hour. 

Mrs May is in a race against time to set out her demands for an extension at next week’s emergency EU summit. Whatever Mrs May asks for, EU leaders must agree unanimously on the terms – and she will not be in the room as they decide.

Mr Juncker’s intervention stands in contrast to a hardline response from EU leaders led by French President Emmanuel Macron.

Mr Juncker told the Commission today: ‘If the UK is in a position of approving the Withdrawal deal with a viable majority by the 12th April then the… European Union would also accept an extension until the 22nd May.

‘The 12th April is the final date for possible approval. If the House of Commons does not adopt a stance before that date no short-term extension will be possible.’

But Mr Juncker also warned a no-deal Brexit on April 12 was becoming ‘more and more likely’.

‘The European Council has given all necessary time and space to the UK to take its decision. I believe a no-deal on the 12th April at midnight has become a scenario which looks more and more likely.

‘It’s not what I want but we have made sure that the EU is ready to face up to that situation. We’ve been preparing since December 2017. We’ve always known that the logic of Article 50 makes no-deal a default option.’

Earlier, senior EU figures warned Britain should be handed a long delay to Brexit and forced to hold European Parliament elections today.

The interventions raise the prospects of Mrs May’s hopes of a second short delay with an exit plan if she passes the deal in time to avoid the polls on May 22.

A member of Angela Merkel‘s party today said there was ‘no point’ in Mrs May’s plan while a senior MEP warned it would be a ‘political effort’ to get EU leaders on board.  

And before the Prime Minister announced her cross-party talks, French President Emmanuel Macron was already warning that she must come with a concrete plan if she is to ask for another delay on Wednesday. 

He said: ‘Should the United Kingdom be unable to – three years after the referendum – propose a solution backed by a majority, they will de facto have chosen for themselves to leave without a deal. We cannot avoid failure for them’.  

Norbert Röttgen, a member of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union who heads the Bundestag’s foreign affairs committee, said: ‘In the current situation of deep institutional deadlock, there is no point in asking for another short delay of Brexit.

‘EU should insist on long extension with participation in EU elections.’ 

Danuta Maria Hübner, a leading MEP on the European parliament’s Brexit steering committee, told BBC’s Radio 4’s Today programme she feared it would be a ‘political effort to convince 27 member states to to continue with this process of extension’. 

EU leaders last night said they would be patient in the aftermath of Mrs May’s speech.

Denmark’s prime minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, tweeted: ‘Since we could agree to postpone Brexit to right before EP [European parliament] election given the approval of May’s agreement, we should also be patient there suddenly is a cross-party way forward in UK. But is it too good to believe?’

Council President Donald Tusk said: ‘Even if, after today, we don’t know what the end result will be, let us be patient.’ 

Denmark’s prime minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, tweeted: ‘Since we could agree to postpone Brexit to right before EP [European parliament] election given the approval of May’s agreement, we should also be patient there suddenly is a cross-party way forward in UK. But is it too good to believe?’

Council President Donald Tusk said: ‘Even if, after today, we don’t know what the end result will be, let us be patient.’

When she last asked for an extension to Brexit, just a week before the original exit day of March 29, EU leaders rejected Mrs May’s plan.

She had asked for a three month delay to the end of June. She was given a two week extension to April 12, with an optional extension to May 22 if she passed the deal by March 29.

Mrs May now appears set to make a similar request with a view to still leaving by May 22 to avoid Britain having to take part in EU elections.

But she could be forced to accept a longer delay. The Government has already told councils it will cover the costs for EU elections if the polls have to be held.