THERE must be an option of extending the timetable for Brexit negotiations if the UK is to “avoid an economic cliff edge”, the First Minister has warned.

While Theresa May insisted delaying the European Union departure date of March 29 is “not an option”, Nicola Sturgeon gave Westminster an “urgent reality check”.

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Sturgeon has written to opposition leaders in the UK Parliament, arguing that if no deal can be reached with the EU, the timetable for talks must be extended.

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The SNP leader said: “It’s time for everyone in the UK political establishment to wake up to the reality of what now faces us.

“If the choice we face is between no deal and no detail, then an extension to the Article 50 negotiation period must be on the table as the only way to avoid an economic cliff edge and allow all alternative options to be considered.”

At dinner with European leaders at the Austrian summit in Salzburg on Wednesday, May continued to argue her Chequers proposals were the only credible route to a deal.

The PM’s message was that while the deadline for an agreement to be reached is quickly approaching, “delaying or extending these negotiations is not an option”, according to a senior UK official.

But Sturgeon insisted it “seems increasingly likely” that the statement setting out the future relationship between the UK and the EU “will be vague and lacking in meaningful detail”.

She said: “The Tory government has been busy trying to paint Brexit as a choice between a no-deal Brexit and the inadequate Chequers proposal, but in reality that is a false dichotomy – thanks to their incompetence, infighting and indecision, it seems increasingly likely that the choice will be between a no-deal Brexit and a blind Brexit.

“Both options are unpalatable and completely unacceptable.

“A no-deal Brexit will, by the UK Government’s own admission, leads to dire economic consequences and a shortage of medicines and foodstuffs.”

Sturgeon added: “A blind Brexit will simply kick all of the difficult decisions into the long grass”.