LONDON -- British Prime Minister Theresa May will chair several hours of cabinet meetings on Tuesday in an attempt to plot a course out of the Brexit maelstrom as she comes under pressure to either leave the European Union without a deal or call an election.

Nearly three years since the United Kingdom voted to leave the EU in a shock referendum result, British politics is in crisis and it is unclear how, when or if it will ever leave the club it first joined in 1973.

May's deal has been defeated three times by the lower house of the British parliament which failed on Monday to find a majority of its own for any alternative to her deal. May is expected to try to put her deal to a fourth vote this week.

The deadlock has already delayed Brexit for two weeks beyond the planned departure date of March 29 and May is due to chair hours of cabinet meetings in Downing Street in a bid to find a way out of the maze.

"Over the last days a no-deal scenario has become more likely, but we can still hope to avoid it," the EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said in Brussels.