May seeks honourable compromise
LONDON: Seeking an ‘honourable compromise’, Prime Minister Theresa May on Sunday told rebel MPS that failure to pass the withdrawal agreement next week would mean the UK not leaving the European Union “for many months, if ever.”
Holding the prospect of Brexit not happening at all, May has been meeting groups of MPS and used an article in The Sunday Telegraph to try and change minds after the agreement was twice defeated in the House of Com- mons, in January and last week.
As some rebels indicated they would now support the agreement by “holding the nose”, if only to ensure the UK leaves the EU on the due date of March 29, May is likely to reintroduce it on Tuesday or Wednesday.
But it may not take place if May and her team’s efforts to enlist more support prove f utile and there are again less chances of it being passed.
Labour has been working to seek support for the idea that the agreement could be supported subject to a new 'confirmatory referendum'.
If parliament passes the agreement before the European Council’s summit on Thursday, London will seek a short delay beyond March 29 to pass the necessary legislation: “That is not an ideal outcome - we could and should have been leaving the EU on 29 March,” May wrote.
“But it is something the British people would accept if it led swiftly to delivering Brexit. The alternative if Parliament cannot agree the deal by that time is much worse,” she added, reflecting the view that failure to pass it would lead to a longer delay.
May wrote that it would be a “potent symbol of Parliament's collective political failure” if a delay to Brexit meant the UK was forced to take part in elections to the European Parliament in May, nearly three years after voting to leave the EU.
May admitted that she had more to do to convince rebel MPS in her party and outside to support the agreement, including the Democratic Unionist Party that is propping up her minority government. “I am convinced that the time to define ourselves by how we voted in 2016 must now end. We can only put those old labels aside if we stand together.”