The British government yesterday said it intends to bring back British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal for a third vote in parliament today to avoid a chaotic no-deal divorce from the EU.
May’s throw of the dice comes a day after her dramatic pledge to resign to persuade her rivals to finally back her vision for breaking Britain’s 46-year bond with the EU.
The government’s back is against the wall as it tries to avert potential economic disaster and financial panic in the coming weeks.
Photo: AFP / Jessica Taylor / UK Parliament
Leader of the House of Commons Andrea Leadsom said the government was trying to secure permission for a third vote from Speaker John Bercow.
He already rejected a similar attempt last week after ruling that the version May was bringing back was essentially the same text that lawmakers had already twice rejected by resounding margins.
“We recognize that any motion brought forward tomorrow will need to be compliant with the speaker’s ruling and that discussion is ongoing,” Leadsom told the chamber.
Anxious EU leaders last week offered Britain a Brexit extension until May 22, but it is conditional on parliament voting through May’s deal by today — the day Britain was originally scheduled to leave.
Failure to pass the deal could mean a no-deal Brexit as early as April 12. Businesses fear that would cause economic chaos.
To avoid that, the British government must spell out what its next steps should be.
Britain might then seek a much longer extension that would mean it has to hold European Parliament elections, despite having voted to leave the bloc.
May’s handling of Brexit has provoked both anger and frustration, as well as ridicule.
She played what might have been her last political card on Wednesday by promising to quit once the messy divorce process is complete.
“I know there is a desire for a new approach — and new leadership — in the second phase of the Brexit negotiations and I won’t stand in the way of that,” May told a packed meeting of Conservative Party members.
Her promise won over some likely contenders for her job.
May became prime minister shortly after the 2016 referendum in which Britons narrowly voted to leave the EU.
Former British secretary of state for foreign and Commonwealth affairs Boris Johnson said he would now back the prime minister “on behalf of the 17.4 million people who voted for Brexit,” but May’s position was undermined when her allies in Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) said they would continue to oppose the deal.
The small party props up May’s minority government, giving it a decisive role in the political saga that has consumed Britain and left its EU partners increasingly perplexed.
The DUP is opposed to provisions in May’s deal to keep a free-flowing border between Britain’s Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland.
The group worries that this would give Northern Ireland a different economic status from mainland Britain and separate it from the mainland.
“For us, the most important thing is a union,” DUP leader Arlene Foster told broadcaster RTE yesterday. “I don’t make any apologies for that.”
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