How to break a Brexit deadlock: 'keep going, be flexible ... and listen'

Whether it be a hijack, kidnap or siege situation, negotiation is an art. Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn take note

Westminster is in deadlock. The progress of Theresa May's withdrawal agreement has stalled in parliament, where a majority of MPs are opposed to it. Jeremy Corbyn has refused to enter talks with the prime minister until she rules out a no-deal Brexit, a demand she describes as "an impossible condition". So how do our political representatives get themselves out of this impasse?

"Negotiation is an art, not a science," says Dr J Simon Rofe, a reader in diplomatic and international studies at Soas, University of London, who teaches a course called "the art of negotiation".