Brexit: British MPs seize control of process from Theresa May
In the latest ignominy for Theresa May, MPs today dramatically seized control of Brexit, complicating the process further.
In the latest ignominy for Theresa May, the Conservative party has lost control of Brexit after backbenchers seized control of the parliamentary order paper in an unprecedented move to find a majority for any Brexit option.
The humiliation inflicted on the hapless Prime Minister continued unabated as several Tories — including three Cabinet ministers, one of whom resigned to support the amendment — crossed the floor.
The vote was to allow parliament have control for one day on Wednesday, to decide on a series of indicative votes — normally the preserve of the government executive. The vote, called the Oliver Letwin amendment, was won 329 to 302, a surprising margin of 27.
Business minister Richard Harrington resigned his post on the way to the lobbies to vote against the government.
“The government’s approach to Brexit is playing roulette with the vast majority of people in this country’’ he said in his resignation letter.
A Remainer Tory and foreign office minister, Alistair Burt also voted against the government and resigned.
The third minister to resign was health minister Steve Brine. Other Tories were expected to follow suit.
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The vote means that Brexit has just got even more complicated as there appears to be no obvious option that will attract overwhelming support in tomorrow’s round of indicative votes. There is also uncertainty how the indicative voting would take place: whether each option would be voted separately or having some form of preferential voting.
the move potentially paves the way for a “softer” deal that will keep the UK closer to Europe.
Mrs May has already foreshadowed that she will not consider any of the indicative voting to be legally binding and warned that the voting could bring about conflicted results or results that are unacceptable to the European Union.
The odds of Mrs May calling a general election have shortened, following today’s loss of control and Conservative party rebellion.
Over the weekend senior Tories failed to convince Mrs May to resign. In a meeting with Brexiteers who asked her to set a date for her departure in return for their support for the bill. Mrs May said that would show “weakness” and refused to address the request she resign.
“It is with great regret that I have had to conclude that as things stand there is still not sufficient support in the House to bring back the deal for a third meaningful vote,” Mrs May told MPs this morning.
Last week, the EU agreed to delay Britain’s original March 29 departure date because of the deadlock. Now, it will leave the EU on May 22 if May’s deal is approved by parliament this week. If not, it will have until April 12 to outline its plans.
However under UK law the official date still remains March 29.
Mrs May refused to give up on her deal passing this week, noting that the alternatives were unpalatable to her and that there was no evidence of a majority in parliament for anything except the principle of avoiding an abrupt “no-deal” exit.
“Unless this House agrees to it, ‘no deal’ will not happen. ‘No Brexit’ must not happen,” May said.
She said another referendum, a new agreement, or not leaving the EU at all were among the alternatives that had no majority.
The bottom line remained that if her deal and no deal were rejected, Britain would have to seek a longer delay to Brexit.
The EU believes a “no-deal” Brexit is increasingly likely.
“We don’t want a ‘no-deal’ Brexit, we’d much rather have the Withdrawal Agreement, but if it is to be a ‘no deal’, let’s do it quickly,” an EU official said.
Sterling fell as the chances of May’s deal passing slipped. Opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said Mrs May’s approach to Brexit had become “a national embarrassment” that risked allowing Britain to crash out of the EU without a deal.
The Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party, which props up May’s minority government, has voted against the deal so far.
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