MPs preparing bid to delay Brexit, ministers tell business leaders

LONDON (Reuters) - Members of Parliament are preparing a motion to delay the Article 50 process of leaving the European Union, government ministers told business leaders, according to a source who was on the call.

British Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal was rejected by MPs on Tuesday night, and in a call with business leaders some of her senior ministers raised the notion that the March 29 date to exit the bloc might be pushed back.

Finance minister Philip Hammond, business minister Greg Clark and Brexit minister Stephen Barclay said that a "backbench motion is being prepared now to delay Article 50," a British corporate executive who was on the call told Reuters on condition of anonymity, adding that business leaders asked ministers about no-deal.

"They are doing a good job to try to appear to know what happens now, but no one knows," the source said. "We will have to wait to see what the consensus-building in parliament does."

(Writing by Elisabeth O'Leary; Editing by Alistair Smout)