Sky News reports that Theresa May has won support for her plan to extend Article 50, meaning the UK will not leave the European Union as planned on 29 March.as long as the EU agrees to the delay.
The prime minister asked MPs to approve either a short extension if they back her deal or a longer one if they don’t – the length of the delay will be decided by the middle of next week, before the EU council.
If her deal does not get through parliament by then Mrs May has promised MPs a series of indicative votes which will give them to chance to say what they would like to do instead.
But, she warned, this also means a much longer extension, to be decided by the EU.
The vote on Thursday allows Mrs May to hold onto control of the Commons for a bit longer, but she has been weakened by a series of heavy losses and by her own ministers voting against her to rule out no-deal on Tuesday.
Her position as prime minister will be significantly damaged if MPs don’t back her deal in a third crucial vote and some have even suggested she could be forced to step down.
“Only 85 MPs voted in favour of another referendum“
In other votes, calls for a second EU referendum failed to win support after Labour told its MPs not to back the plan – despite promising to back another vote previously. Only 85 MPs voted in favour of another referendum.
Other votes on Labour’s proposal for next steps and on a plan to give MPs the chance to take control of the Brexit process and test their own preferred options also failed, adding to the list of things MPs have said they do not want.
Now the prime minister must get her own plan through the Commons and then rush through the legal documents to make the deal happen.
The vote on Thursday could have handed power over how the UK leaves the EU over to MPs but that bid has failed and Mrs May still holds the cards. If she fails to win a vote on her deal in the coming days that could all change once again.
Source: Sky News
Another chapter in history written yesterday. The thriller continues with a new episode today. 16 days to hard no-deal Brexit.
Sky News is today wroting the PM May hasn’t goven up andbthat she, after the vote in the House today on no-deal today – is planning for a third Meaningful Vote.
You can read the Sky News article here:
No-deal motion suggests Theresa May is set on trying to make it third time lucky
Source: Sky News
Don’t miss the very interesting interim report from the UK Parliament, House of Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Committee.
I gave evidence to the Committee in a hearing as one of two invited Customs experts. The expert was Dutch Broker Hans Massens.
In the executive summary of the report the Committee writes:
“The Committee has also examined the availability of technical solutions or alternative arrangements for avoiding a hard border in Northern Ireland.
The balance of evidence suggests that a technical and systems based approach to keeping the land border on the island of Ireland much as it is today, far from being a ‘unicorn’, is achievable within the Implementation Period anticipated by the Withdrawal Agreement.
The principal impediment is a lack of political trust and goodwill between the negotiating parties”.
Read this intersting report if you want to know more about Brexit, the backstop, the NI/ROI and alternatoöive arrangements.
You can read the report here: CommonsNIAC, Interimreport: The Northern Ireland backstop and the border
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