BRUSSELS She went in with a plea to leave the European Union in June, she came out with a deal for Halloween.

At 2.45am local time Thursday morning, Prime Minister Theresa May used a brisk press conference to bleary-eyed journalists to insist she had secured a win that Brexit day would now be delayed until October 31.

With that, the cliff-edge no-deal exit, looming just 59 hours away on Friday, had been averted.

But at an uncharacteristically jovial summit, during which May seemed more at ease with other EU leaders (even sharing a joke with Angela Merkel), the PM performed a series of moves sure to anger hardliners back home.

The PM used the early hours press conference to acknowledge the huge frustration that she had been forced to extend Brexit again, and for so long. But in doing so, she also performed an impressive 180-degree turn, abandoning her own suggestion that she could resign if Brexit is significantly delayed.

But she refused to apologise, blaming members of parliament (MPs) again by stressing if sufficient members of Parliament had voted with me in January we would already be out of the European Union.

Brexiteers back in the UK will be seething, and as European Council president Donald Tusk remarked, it is easier to build consensus here than in the House of Commons.

But May at least avoided the acute embarrassment of past summits, having embarked on what the Germans dubbed a begging tour to Berlin and Paris to avoid any nasty ambushes.

Calls with 10 other EU leaders also meant French President Emmanuel Macrons hardball approach threatening no deal was tempered by Tusk and Merkels calls for the UK to be given more time.

The German chancellor even managed to draw a rare laugh from May with an image on her iPad as the PM faced the extreme pressure of an hour-long grilling by EU leaders over her plan.