Theresa May’s Brexit deal has been dealt the final nail in the coffin after MPs roundly rejected it. The House of Commons now has just two weeks to come up with something new or the UK could crash out of the EU without a deal.
The Prime Minister fought to the last minute to save her deal, even offering her resignation as a sweetener to Tory rebels.
She told MPs it was their ‘last opportunity’ to ensure Brexit was delivered in May and warned failure would ‘destroy’ the entire process. However, the deal was rejected in Parliament by 344 votes to 288 – majority 58.
Backbenchers are now poised to take control of Parliament and could hold another round of indicative votes on Monday. The idea of a customs union with the EU – a softer Brexit – is likely to be floated again as well as the idea of a second referendum.
Both would lead to delays on Brexit that could last at least a year and maybe even up to five. In retaliation, the Government could well decide to call a snap general election if MPs try to pass laws that force Mrs May to change direction.
Earlier this month, Europe agreed to a brief extension but warned Mrs May needed to get her deal agreed by the end of today. If she could, they set the new leave date as May 22 so the UK would not need to field candidates in the forthcoming European elections.
If not, Britain has until April 12 to propose some other strategy although the bloc’s negotiator Michel Barnier said it was looking increasingly likely that the UK will crash out without a deal.
Mrs May had hoped to get her deal through the House of Commons this afternoon – the day we were originally scheduled to exit the bloc. Earlier this week Speaker John Bercow threw a spanner in the works by saying that she could not bring it back to be debated again.
He cited a 400-year law that said MPs could not continue to vote on the same motion repeatedly. Mrs May and the Tories got around that by splitting her deal into two parts.
Friday’s vote was a say on the legally binding section of the withdrawal agreement, which dealt with how we would leave the bloc and the Irish backstop question.
It amounted to agreeing to pay the EU a £39,000,000 ‘divorce settlement’ as well as guaranteeing the rights of EU and UK citizens. The most controversial part was the Irish backstop question – an insurance policy designed to kick in if a trade deal could not be reached by the end of the transition period in 2020.
It would keep Northern Ireland in the customs union, while the rest of the UK would leave in order to prevent a hard border. Mrs May’s plan, if that half passed, was to deal next week with the section detailing the future relationship with Europe.
Mrs May had needed to win over 75 politicians to ensure her deal passed through the House of Commons. Her hopes of an 11th hour victory received a boost on Friday morning after Leave architect Boris Johnson, one of her fiercest critics, did a U-turn and announced he would throw his weight behind the leader.
Around 30 Brexiteers pledged their support to the beleaguered Prime Minister, who took over negotiations after David Cameron – who called the referendum – quit.
But her deal would always have struggled without the support of the DUP, who have been propping up her minority government. The 10 politicians called her deal a ‘con trick’ that would break up the Union and refused to support her.
Labour questioned the legality of only voting on half and said the latest vote amounted to agreeing to a ‘blind Brexit.’ Despite Mr Johnson, former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab and former leader Iain Duncan Smith backing Mrs May, she failed to win over the right-wing European Research Group.
Feelings have been running high since 51.9% of the population voted to leave the bloc in the 2016 referendum. Leavers complain Mrs May’s deal was not hard enough and still kept us tied to Europe. Remainers fear economic ruin because leaving the customs union would see the UK lose its biggest trading partner.
Around a dozen protests were scheduled for today around Parliament. Last weekend saw over a million people turn out to demand a People’s Vote for another say on the biggest decision taken by the nation in generations.
Nigel Farage’s ‘March to Leave’ also descended on Parliament Square, two weeks after setting off from Sunderland saying the UK needed to respect the results of the referendum.