British lawmakers were yesterday to vote on whether the nation should leave the EU without a deal in just more than two weeks after overwhelmingly rejecting a draft divorce agreement.
The British House of Commons is expected to vote against a “no deal” Brexit, although this could still happen on March 29 unless it can agree on what should happen instead.
Legislators on Tuesday rejected for a second time the withdrawal deal negotiated by British Prime Minister Theresa May, despite her obtaining last-minute assurances from EU officials.
Photo: AFP
Some euroskeptics are now pressing to leave with no deal, but May said that this scenario could cause “significant economic shock” — and many lawmakers agree with her.
If the “no deal” option is voted down, the government is planning another Commons vote today on whether to request a Brexit delay.
“Voting against leaving without a deal and for an extension does not solve the problems we face,” May said. “The EU will want to know what use we mean to make of such an extension. This House will have to answer that question.”
“Does it wish to revoke Article 50?” she said, referring to the Brexit process. “Does it want to hold a second referendum? Or does it want to leave with a deal, but not this deal?”
British media have reported that May could make a desperate attempt at a third vote on her deal, hoping that Brexit hardliners would fall in line.
However, opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said that the text was “clearly dead” and urged her to back his own plan for closer economic ties with the EU.
A group of lawmakers yesterday was to put forward an alternative proposal to delay Brexit until May 22 and agree a series of interim agreements with the EU lasting until 2021.
However, European Chief Negotiator for the United Kingdom Exiting the EU Michel Barnier said that Brussels had nothing more to offer and must now brace for the possibility of a messy divorce.
“The EU has done everything it can to help get the withdrawal agreement over the line,” he tweeted after Tuesday’s result. “The impasse can only be solved in the #UK. Our ‘no-deal’ preparations are now more important than ever before.”
After British lawmakers in January first rejected the 585-page Brexit deal, May promised changes to its hated backstop plan, an arrangement intended to keep open the border with Ireland.
Weeks of talks failed to make a breakthrough, but May made a late dash to Strasbourg, France, to meet EU leaders on the eve of the vote.
She announced she had secured “legally binding changes” to the backstop, which would keep Britain in the EU’s customs union if and until a new way was found to avoid frontier checks.
However, hours later Attorney General for England and Wales Geoffrey Cox said these additions would not completely allay lawmakers’ fears of being trapped in the arrangement indefinitely.
Brexit-supporting legislators swiftly declared they would not support the deal.
Some euroskeptics did change their mind, urging their colleagues not to risk everything, but the margin of Tuesday’s defeat was 149 votes, not significantly smaller than the historic 230-vote thumping the plan first suffered on Jan. 15.
If lawmakers yesterday voted against a no-deal exit and want to postpone Brexit, the other 27 EU nations would need to agree.
Their leaders are to meet in Brussels for a summit on Thursday and Friday next week.
However, any postponement might have to be short-lived.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Monday said that Brexit “should be complete before the European elections” at the end of May.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in