Minister: Brexit in danger of getting stuck

LONDON: Britain’s exit from the European Union is heading for an impasse, one senior minister said yesterday, after a week in which Prime Minister Theresa May failed to win EU assurances on her deal and pulled a vote because United Kingdom lawmakers would defeat it.

With just over 100 days until Britain leaves the bloc on March 29, Brexit remains up in the air, with growing calls for a no-deal exit, a potentially disorderly divorce that business fears would be highly damaging, or for a second referendum.

May pulled a vote on her deal on Monday after acknowledging it would be heavily defeated over concerns about the “backstop”, an insurance policy designed to avoid any hard land border for Ireland, but which critics say could bind Britain to EU rules indefinitely.

Two days later, she survived a plot to oust her by those in her party who support a hardline Brexit, showing the level of opposition she faced.

May herself has acknowledged that Britain’s Parliament appears deadlocked, with no clear support for any option, with the small Northern Irish party that props up her government leading the criticism.

“Brexit is in danger of getting stuck, and that is something that should worry us all,” Pensions Minister Amber Rudd wrote in Daily Mail yesterday.

“If MPs (lawmakers) dig in against the prime minister’s deal and then hunker down in their different corners, none with a majority, the country will face serious trouble.”