No-deal or short delay? May offers MPs choice

london — Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday offered lawmakers the chance to vote in just over two weeks time on whether to delay Brexit or go for a potentially disorderly no-deal exit from the European Union if her attempt to ratify a divorce deal fails.

Opening up the possibility of taking a no-deal off the table marks one of the biggest turning points in the United Kingdom’s labyrinthine Brexit crisis since the shock 2016 referendum vote to leave the EU.

After the British parliament voted 432-202 against her divorce deal in January, the worst defeat for a government in modern British history, May has repeatedly tried to use the threat of a potentially disorderly no-deal Brexit to get concessions out of the EU.

But British lawmakers worried that May risks thrusting the world’s fifth largest economy into an economic crisis have threatened to

usurp control of Brexit from the government in a series of votes on Wednesday.

Speaking to parliament on Tuesday, May said that if she had failed to get approval of her deal by March 12 then lawmakers would be given a vote on March 13 on leaving without a deal.

If they rejected that option, then lawmakers would have a vote on March 14 on a motion requesting a

“short, limited extension” Brexit delay.

“The United Kingdom will only leave without a deal on March 29 if there is explicit consent in the House for that outcome,” May said. “An extension cannot take no deal off the table.”

“I believe that if we have to, we will ultimately make a success of a no deal,” May said. “Let me be clear - I do not want to see Article 50 extended. Our absolute focus should be on working to get a deal and leaving on the 29th of March.”

May said any extension, not beyond the end of June, would almost certainly have to be a one off and that her government must honour the decision to leave the EU because the credibility of British democracy was at stake.

Earlier, The Sun and Daily Mail newspapers reported that May would formally rule out a no-deal Brexit, opening the door to a delay of weeks or months to the March 29 exit date. Reuters reported on Monday that May’s government was looking at different options, including a possible delay.

Sterling, which has lost about 20 cents against the dollar since the 2016 Brexit referendum, rallied on reports May would rule out a nodeal Brexit but fell back to $1.3191 after May’s statement. —

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