By Guy Faulconbridge and Elizabeth Piper
London: British Prime Minister Theresa May will ask the European Union to delay Brexit for at least three months after the speaker of the House of Commons threw her plans for another vote on her twice-defeated divorce deal into crisis.
Nearly three years after Britain voted to leave the EU, its departure is still uncertain. Possible outcomes still range from a long postponement, leaving with May's deal, a disruptive exit without a deal, or even another referendum.
Just 10 days before the March 29 exit date that May set two years ago by submitting a formal 'Article 50' request to leave – and two days before a crucial EU summit – she was on Tuesday writing to European Council President Donald Tusk to ask for a delay, her spokesman said.
It was not immediately clear how long a delay she would seek. She had warned Parliament that if it did not ratify her deal, she would ask to delay Brexit beyond June 30, a step that Brexit's advocates fear would endanger the entire divorce.
Other EU member states were discussing two main options: a delay of two to three months, if May persuades them she can clinch a deal at home, or much longer if May accepts that radical reworking is needed.
British Prime Minister Theresa May.Credit: AP
The BBC's political editor, Laura Kuenssberg, reported that cabinet sources said May would ask for an extension until June 30 – which could give her another chance to get Parliament to bless her deal – with the option of a delay of up to two years.
Brexit crisis rumbles on
In a move that added to the sense of crisis in London, speaker John Bercow ruled on Monday that May's Brexit deal had to be substantially different to be voted on again by Parliament.
Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay said a vote this week on the deal was now less likely, but ministers were studying options, and he indicated the government still planned a third vote.
"This is a moment of crisis for our country," he said.
A float depicts British Prime Minister Theresa May during the traditional carnival parade in Dusseldorf, Germany on March 4. Credit: AP
The EU's most powerful leader, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, stressed that time was running out.
"I will fight until the last minute of the time to March 29 for an orderly exit," she said. "We haven't got a lot of time for that."
Her foreign minister, Heiko Maas, said: "If more time is needed, it's always better to do another round than a no-deal Brexit."
An anti-Brexit placard outside the Houses of Parliament in London.Credit: AP
If it left this way, Britain would quit the EU's single market and customs union overnight, falling back on World Trade Organisation rules that could mean import and export tariffs. It would face the prospect of manufacturing and financial market disruption, sharp economic contraction and border delays.
Brexit supporters and pro-EU campaigners in London.Credit: AP
But France was blunter, saying a no-deal exit was still possible.
"Grant an extension – what for? Time is not a solution, it's a method," said France's EU Affairs Minister Nathalie Loiseau. "If there is an objective and a strategy, it has to come from London."
However, senior EU figures, while exasperated by Britain's Brexit dithering, have no appetite for pushing Brexit through without a deal.
The 2016 referendum, which produced a 52-48 per cent vote to leave, exposed deep divisions and has fuelled soul-searching about everything from secession and immigration to capitalism and British identity.
Question marks over May's deal
The crisis has left allies and investors puzzled by a country that for decades seemed a confident pillar of Western economic and political stability.
Bercow said his ruling, based on a convention dating back to 1604, did not prevent the government reshaping its proposition, or securing a vote in Parliament to override his ruling.
The pressure to come up with legal or procedural changes means May is likely to get only one more chance to put the deal to a vote.
Barclay, who last week said Britain should not fear a no-deal exit, said a change in context might be sufficient to meet Bercow's test.
Even before Bercow's intervention, May was having difficulty boosting support for her deal – which would set out to secure close trading ties with the EU and keep the Irish border open – after it was defeated by 230 votes on January 15, and by 149 votes on March 12.
She needs to win over at least 75 lawmakers – dozens of rebels in her own Conservative Party, some Labour lawmakers, and the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which props up her minority government.
In addition to regulating the terms of departure, May's deal promises to take Britain out of the EU single market and customs union, common fisheries and farm policies and the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice at the end of a status-quo period in which new trade arrangements would be agreed.
Reuters