MPs to seek new Brexit path after deal rejected again

LONDON: Lawmakers were set to attempt to chart a new Brexit path yesterday after rejecting Prime Minister Theresa May’s deal for a third time, leaving her strategy in tatters and the country in limbo.

With less than two weeks to go until the day Britain risks crashing out of the European Union, members of parliament will hold votes to try and find a majoritybacked plan to end the crisis.

Britain voted by 52 per cent to leave the EU in a 2016 referendum, but the process has been mired in divisions between Brexit supporters over the terms of the divorce.

The government struck a deal with the EU in November, but Parliament has refused to ratify it, forcing the government to seek a delay to the originally planned departure date of March 29.

The EU’s offer of an extension until May 22 was conditional on MPs approving the deal last week.

Despite May’s promise to step down if they voted for the deal, an attempt to get Brexit hardliners to vote for it, they failed to do so.

The government must now make a new request to the EU at an extraordinary summit on April 10 or leave the bloc without a deal on April 12 with potentially chaotic economic consequences.

Frustration is growing in the EU, with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Sunday telling an Italian TV station that the EU was running out of patience with Britain.

“With our British friends, we have had a lot of patience, but even patience is running out.

“Up to now, we know what the British Parliament says no to, but we do not know what it says yes to.”