THERESA May is to address the nation as she prepares to meet EU leaders to discuss a request for a delay to Brexit.

No 10 said the Prime Minister will make a statement in Downing Street at 8.15pm tonight after a series of meetings with opposition party leaders in Parliament.

Earlier, European Council president Donald Tusk said he believed a short delay "would be possible" after he spoke to the Prime Minister following her formal request for an extension of the Article 50 withdrawal process to the end of June.

However, France, Spain and Belgium are thought to be ready to veto any move to extend Article 50.

READ MORE: Brexit: France, Spain and Belgium ready to veto Article 50 extension

The PM made the request in a letter to Tusk exactly 1000 days after the 2016 referendum which delivered a 52%-48% majority to quit the EU.

Initially Downing Street declined to comment on reports the PM would be making a statement but Irish premier Leo Vardakar let the cat out of the bag.

Speaking in Dublin, he said: "That will be an opportunity for her to set out her plan, her timeline, as to how an extension would work."

"We always said we'd be open to an extension if there was a purpose to it and I think it's important that we hear from her first and we'll respond as 27, as the European Union, in the next couple of days."

The leaders of the Labour Party, SNP, Liberal Democrats, Green Party, Plaid Cymru and the Independent Group are understood to have been invited to meetings with May.

Meanwhile, the former attorney general said Theresa May’s address in the Commons earlier in the day had left him ashamed to be a member of the Tory Party.

WATCH: MP says Theresa May makes him ‘ashamed’ to be a Tory in astonishing speech

Dominic Grieve escribed the Prime minister’s performance at the dispatch box in the Commons as “the worst moment I have experienced since I came into the House of Commons".

Grieve said: “I have never felt more ashamed to be a member of the Conservative Party of to be asked to lend her support.

“She spent most of her time castigating the house for its misconduct. At no time did she consider that it might be her misconduct which is contributing to this situation.”