'Get on' with Brexit

Earlier, May told her cabinet that last week's local elections, when the Conservatives lost hundreds of council seats, underlined the need to get on with Brexit.

"The prime minister said that while an agreement with the opposition had not been reached, the public had sent a clear message in the local elections that they want both of the main parties to get on with delivering Brexit," her spokesman said she told ministers.

However, many pro-EU lawmakers used the election results to argue the tide is turning against Brexit after the Liberal Democrats, who oppose Brexit and want a second referendum, gained many council seats.

Taking part in the European elections is a further blow to May, who secured a divorce deal with the EU in November but has been unable to implement the agreement and faces growing calls to bring forward her decision to stand down as prime minister.

She was to meet the chairman of the Conservative 1922 Committee, an influential party group that can make or break Conservative Party leaders, on Tuesday.

A spokesman described it as a regular meeting, though some newspapers reported that its chairman, Graham Brady, would demand a firm timetable for her departure.

May was not alone in wanting to avoid European elections.

Like the Conservatives, the Labour Party fears voters will again punish them, and vote for alternative parties that have a clearer stance on Brexit.

Conservative Brexit supporters might flock to the newly launched Brexit Party of former UKIP leader Nigel Farage.

Pro-EU Labour voters could turn to Change UK, another new party, or support the Liberal Democrats.

But with both major parties, like much of the country, deeply divided over Brexit, any breakthrough from the current round of talks might be hard to come by.

Labour sources were dismissive of weekend reports the government would offer new concessions, including a temporary customs union with the EU until a national election due in June 2022, saying such a proposal would not go far enough.

That offer was quickly played down by Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who said he did not believe a post-Brexit customs union would offer a sustainable long-term solution.

"I want to look at whatever deal is come to between the parties and I know this is a crucial week," he told BBC radio.

Reuters