Theresa May loses critical Brexit vote
Britain’s MPs have once again rejected the Brexit deal, presented by the Prime Minister Theresa May, thereby handing her a fresh defeat and thwarting her efforts to walk UK out of the European Union. In a fresh vote on Friday, the MPs voted 344 to 286 against the withdrawal agreement which was basically as stripped-down version of the deal which had been defeated twice in the EU.
The result clearly means that UK will have to walk out of EU without any particular deal in place. It will now depend on UK government if they are able to negotiate an extension of UK’s departure from the bloc. Prime Minister, Theresa May stated that it was highly regretful that the British Parliament has failed to pass the deal and the consequences of the decision will be grave. UK will now have to leave the European Economic bloc or EU legally by default on April 12.
PM May stated, “I fear we are reaching the limits of this process in this House. This House has rejected no deal. It has rejected no Brexit. On Wednesday it rejected all the variations of the deal on the table. And today it has rejected approving the withdrawal agreement alone and continuing a process on the future”.
The opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, has said that the Prime Minister should call for a general election as it is the only way to break the Brexit deadlock. The President of European Council, Donald Tusk has said that the leaders of Europe will meet in April for discussing Brexit. He has called on the European Council in April in the wake of the rejection of the deal by the British Parliament. The European Commission said that the likelihood of a no-deal Brexit has increased immensely. The Commission also expressed regrets on the negative vote in the House of Commons. It said that the responsibility to tell the way forward now rests with the UK before the stipulated date of April 12. EU is completely prepared for a “no-deal” scenario.
Parliament had held many non-binding votes on many alternative plans of Brexit in an attempt to find new approaches to Brexit. There were eight plans which were put to vote but none of them had been able to win the majority support. PM May has said that the legislators will again try to find a stable majority for a suitable version of the future relationship of Britain with EU.
