Britain says EU could hold emergency summit to offer conditional Brexit extension

LONDON (Reuters) - The European Union could next week hold an emergency summit to offer a Brexit extension with potentially onerous conditions such as holding another referendum, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said on Thursday.

“There could be and we don't know there will be an EU emergency summit to offer us an extension,” Hunt told BBC radio.

“We don't know what the length would be and it could have some very onerous conditions,” such as holding another referendum. He said such an option would be unlikely to be supported by the British parliament.

Hunt said the government did not yet know whether Prime Minister Theresa May's twice-defeated Brexit deal would be brought back to parliament next week.

“Do we resolve this or have Brexit paralysis？” Hunt said. He said a no-deal exit on March 29 remained the legal default.

Hunt said if the deadlock remained next week - parliament still had the option to vote to revoke Article 50 and cancel the entire Brexit process, though it was “highly unlikely”