UK MPs give nod to Brexit delay
British MPs have voted to ask the European Union to delay Brexit, with just two weeks to go until the United Kingdom is scheduled to leave the bloc.
The UK is heading toward the March 29 Brexit deadline with no approved EU withdrawal agreement and a prime minister who appears to have lost control over her bickering Cabinet, Agence France-Presse said.
On Thursday, MPs voted to ask EU leaders to simply push Brexit back in a bid to head off a chaotic end to their 46-year partnership.
The vote gives Prime Minister Theresa May some breathing space, but is still humbling for a leader who has spent two years telling Britons they were leaving the bloc on March 29, according to The Associated Press.
The vote allowed for May’s twicerejected deal to return to parliament again next week.
But a bumpy “no deal” exit on March 29 will still happen if May’s strategy is voted down again and the EU fails to approve an extension.
May is likely to ask EU leaders for an extension at a March 21-22 summit of the bloc in Brussels, AP said.
EU leaders have said they would consider any request from London. But they also want to know how long the extension would be — and what it would be used for — before they meet in Brussels next week.
Approval would then see her ask for the delay until June 30 so that the treaty can be ratified.
But May has warned that if her deal is rejected, it could see Brexit postponed for much longer.
If the prime minister’s deal is again rejected, it could mean Britain remaining in the EU beyond the end of June. Remaining in the EU beyond June 30 would mean Britain having to take part in this May’s European Parliament elections, Xinhua News Agency said.
EU Council chief Donald Tusk said on Thursday that the bloc could approve a long postponement “if the UK finds it necessary to rethink its Brexit strategy and build consensus around it”.
May’s deal has been blocked chiefly by disagreement over the so-called Irish “backstop” — a measure to keep trade flowing and avoid friction at the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
A sense of chaos has filled the House of Commons this week as lawmakers held a series of votes on ideas about what they could do next.
MPs have twice rejected the deal struck by May with the other 27 EU nations — in January and on Tuesday.
They voted on Wednesday not to leave without an agreement, but still lacked a clear roadmap on the way forward three years after Brexit was launched in a bitterly divisive referendum.
Lawmakers also rejected a call to use that time to hold a second referendum — a blow to the hopes of a large number of Britons who still dream of keeping their European identities.
Anxious businesses are pleading for action and US President Donald Trump said he was “surprised to see how badly it has all gone”.