May facing worst crisis
LONDON: Prime Minister Theresa May was yesterday grappling with the biggest crisis of her premiership after a draft divorce deal with the European Union provoked the resignations of senior ministers and mutiny in her party.
Late last night, the editor of BrexitCentral, citing a single source who he said was always previously reliable, said the 48 letters from Conservative lawmakers required to trigger a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Theresa May had been submitted. Parliamentary whips were last night rumoured to be cancelling MPs’ electorate duties so Parliament could sit, presumably for a confidence vote, reports said.
More than two years since the United Kingdom voted to leave the EU in a shock referendum, it was still unclear how, on what terms or even whether it would leave the EU on March 29, 2019.
Ever since winning the top job in the turmoil that followed the 2016 referendum, May has sought to negotiate a Brexit deal that ensures the United Kingdom leaves the EU in the smoothest way possible.
But Brexit minister Dominic Raab resigned over her deal, sending the pound tumbling.
Mutinous lawmakers in her own party openly sought to challenge her leadership and bluntly told her that the Brexit deal would not pass Parliament.
Last night, it was not clear whether Michael Gove, the most prominent Brexitsupporting minister in her government, would stay on as Environment Minister after May offered him the job of Brexit minister, British newspapers reported.
Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which props up her minority government, turned hostile.
The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported the DUP had demanded May be replaced as prime minister.
The EU and Britain need an agreement to keep trade flowing between the world’s biggest trading bloc and the United Kingdom, home to the biggest international financial centre.
‘‘It is . . . mathematically impossible to get this deal through the House of Commons. The stark reality is that it was dead on arrival,’’ said Conservative Brexitsupporting lawmaker Mark Francois. — Reuters