Theresa May has pushed back the date of a House of Commons vote on her Brexit plan B, or smooth departure from the EU, to January 29, exactly two months before the UK is due to leave the EU, as talks with senior members of other parties to find ways of breaking the Brexit deadlock at Westminster intensified.
Mrs May has been forced into cross-party talks after her Brexit deal, the product of two years of negotiations in Brussels, was on Tuesday night overwhelmingly rejected by the House of Commons by 432 votes to 202, the biggest defeat by any prime minister in modern history. A total of 118 Tory MPs defied their whip to vote against Mrs May’s deal, representing a third of her parliamentary party. A cross-party coalition is the only way to create a majority for Brexit in parliament.
A draft withdrawal agreement sets the UK’s Brexit bill of more than £39bn, establishes a transition period that could last until the end of 2022 and includes a backstop that could keep the UK in a customs union with the EU to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland.
Much of the opposition in Westminster centres on the Irish backstop as it would retain the UK in a customs union with the EU if there were no other ways to prevent a hard border in Ireland. Tory Brexiters fear the backstop will become permanent, requiring Britain to accept EU rules indefinitely. Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s prime minister, insists the Irish border backstop could not be diluted.
Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which is propping up Mrs May’s minority government, would like to see the backstop removed from the withdrawal agreement completely. Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the opposition Labour Party, has made talks conditional on Mrs May ruling out a no-deal Brexit. Mr Corbyn wants the withdrawal agreement to be accompanied by permanent membership of European Union’s customs union after Brexit and reassurances on workers’ rights. The Liberal Democrats, the Scottish National Party, Plaid Cymru and the Greens all want a second Brexit referendum and an extension of Article 50 beyond Britain’s scheduled departure in March. A second referendum will only take place if it gets Mr Corbyn’s backing and Labour leader, a longtime Eurosceptic, currently rejects the idea.
Hardcore Conservative Brexiters want a total beak with the EU, believing that the UK could rebuild its trading relations with the 27-country bloc from the outside. They want a free-trade agreement modelled on the EU’s deal with Canada.
Ways to break the Brexit impasse at Westminster include a permanent customs union (an arrangement that could curb Britain’s ability to strike trade deals with countries outside the bloc), Norway-style membership of the bloc’s single market that includes freedom of movement, a new general election, which could produce a similar result to the last poll, and a second Brexit referendum.
Mrs May won a vote of no confidence in her government, tabled by Labour leader, on Wednesday night. That suggested that neither the Conservatives nor the Democratic Unionists wanted a general election and determination to end free movement of people appears to preclude a Norway-style single-market deal with the EU. It is also unlikely that a second Brexit referendum and a permanent customs union enjoy majority support among MPs.
Mrs May’s priority is to avoid falling out on March 29 with no deal. Under an EU court ruling, the UK can unilaterally revoke Article 50, the two year-long divorce process from the EU, and permanently remain in the bloc, but extending negotiations requires an agreement of all other 27 members.
Photo: UK Prime Minister
