EUROPE LOOKS ON AS BRITAIN’S MPS LOCK HORNS OVER BREXIT
▶ PM Theresa May rejects calls for a general election as Britain’s Parliament remains paralysed and March 29 Brexit deadline looms
UK Prime Minister Theresa May was forced to battle an opposition attempt to oust her from power yesterday after the stinging defeat of Britain’s withdrawal agreement with the EU.
Defeat in parliament by 432 votes to 202 left Mrs May scrambling for momentum even as she resisted Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s confidence motion in her leadership.
Hardline Brexiteers from the Conservatives and Democratic Unionist Party who voted against the government on Brexit said they would back Mrs May in the face of a general election threat.
Speaking in Parliament yesterday, Mr Corbyn accused Mrs May of pursuing a doomed strategy for a botched deal.
Mr Corbyn, who has resisted Labour members calling for a second referendum on the decision to leave the EU, said Mrs May should resign in the face of such a humiliating loss.
“The scale of the crisis means we need a government with a fresh mandate,” he said.
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who spoke to the prime minister, supported Labour’s call for an election, saying Mrs May had not recognised the scale of the defeat her plan had suffered.
Arguments over the Customs union, immigration and the contentious Irish backstop, an insurance policy to keep an open and frictionless border on the island of Ireland, led to claims Mrs May is unwilling or unable to alter her plan.
David Gauke, the Justice Minister, said the government would have to re-examine all the previous limits on its negotiating position.
“I don’t think today we should be boxing ourselves in,” he said.
Mrs May will now approach senior MPs to try to find a compromise that would allow a deal to pass through Parliament, but this may not include the Labour leader directly.
Her supporters said it would become clearer after the no-confidence motion.
The Commons Brexit committee chaired by the former Labour Cabinet minister Hilary Benn issued a report stating there were four options that should be put to a vote to see if any could command a majority.
They were to hold another vote on the draft withdrawal agreement, to leave the EU with no deal on March 29, to seek to renegotiate the deal to achieve a different, specific outcome, and to hold a second referendum to allow the British people to decide.
Meanwhile, Mrs May said a general election “would deepen divisions when we need unity, it would bring chaos when we need certainty”.
She did not endorse holding a second referendum, saying it was the duty of the House of Commons to deliver on the British people’s vote in 2016.
Failing to do so would leave the public’s view of “Parliament and politicians at an alltime low”. She also insisted it remained London’s policy to leave the EU on March 29.
A key ally of the prime minister, Damian Green, said she was up to the challenge of moving ahead despite the deadlock.
The DUP’s Nigel Dodds accused the prime minister of failing to listen to those in her party and in Northern Ireland.
But he said the DUP would support Mrs May so she could have “more time and space to focus” on a new deal.
In the financial world, the size of the rejection led to a modest strengthening of the pound
Mrs May will now approach senior MPs to try to find a compromise that would allow a deal to pass through Parliament
against the euro and a negligible rise against the dollar.
Bank of England Governor Mark Carney told another Parliamentary committee that the British currency had found support because of “some expectation that the process of resolution would be extended and that the prospect of no deal may have been diminished”.
The UK’s financial services sector supported remaining in the EU and has repeatedly warned against the devastating results of a no-deal Brexit.
The British Chambers of Commerce urged the government and Parliament to do all they could to stop a no-deal Brexit.
“Basic questions on real-world operational issues remain unanswered, and firms now find themselves facing the unwelcome prospect of a messy and disorderly exit from the EU on March 29,” it said.
Mrs May’s predecessor, David Cameron, showed his support for the prime minister.
“I do not regret calling the referendum,” he said. “Obviously I regret that we lost that referendum. I deeply regret that.”