Ahead of vote, ECJ confirms UK still able to stop Brexit
Speculation was rife in Westminster on Monday that British Prime Minister Theresa May would delay Tuesday’s key vote on her agonizingly negotiated Brexit deal to leave the EU.
Two cabinet sources told the BBC’s political editor Laura Kuenssberg that Tuesday’s planned Brexit vote would be delayed. There was no official confirmation at the time of writing.
On Monday, the European Union’s top court ruled that the UK can revoke Brexit without permission from the 27 other EU member states.
A judgment by the European Court of Justice (known as the ECJ) gives the UK the right to unilaterally withdraw its Article 50 notification to leave the EU.
In a statement, the ECJ said: “In today’s judgment, the full court has ruled that when a member state has notified the European Council of its intention to withdraw from the European Union, as the UK has done, that member state is free to revoke unilaterally that notification.
“That possibility exists for as long as a withdrawal agreement concluded between the EU and that member state has not entered into force or, if no such agreement has been concluded, for as long as the twoyear period from the date of the notification of the intention to withdraw from the EU, and any possible extension, has not expired.”
Campaigners had argued that the option of remaining in the EU be clear to parliamentarians making decisions on UK’s future in regards to the EU.
May has strongly denied that remaining in the EU is an option.
MPs are already widely expected to reject the prime minister’s proposed deal during the upcoming vote in the House of Commons.
May was making a desperate lastditch bid to win over rebellious Conservative MPs on Monday, before deciding whether to proceed with the crucial vote on her Brexit deal.
Few of the 100-plus rebels who have vowed to vote against her deal showed any sign of altering their positions.
May is now under intense pressure from her aides and senior ministers to consider pulling the vote on Tuesday, with a final decision unlikely to be made until the last moment.
On Sunday, one of May’s closest cabinet allies issued a blunt warning that the UK should learn from Northern Ireland about “the damage that division can do”.
The Northern Ireland secretary, Karen Bradley, writing for The Guardian newspaper on Sunday, warned that divisions caused by Brexit could scar the whole of the UK in a similar way to the historic divides that have split Northern Ireland.
“When the dust settles on Brexit, we must move forward in order to put some of the division about the nature of our country’s relationship with the European Union behind us. Northern Ireland, in particular, knows the damage that division can do, and the benefits when that division can be overcome.”
Amid deep anxiety and uncertainty over the fate of her deal, May spoke by phone to Donald Tusk, the European council president, to discuss the bleak prospects for it being voted through in Parliament. Tusk later tweeted it was “an important week for the fate of Brexit”.