PM accepts possible Brexit delay for first time
THERESA May has accepted for the first time that the UK may not leave the European Union on March 29, offering MPs a chance to vote to delay Brexit if her deal is rejected again next month.
The Prime Minister left the House of Commons in no doubt she does not want a delay and still hopes to obtain assurances from Brussels which will win MPs’ approval for her Withdrawal Agreement.
She announced that if she loses a “meaningful vote”, due by March 12, MPs will be offered separate votes on a no-deal Brexit or extending the two-year Article 50 negotiation process beyond March 29.
Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn accused the PM of “kicking the can down the road”, while the chairman of the influential European Research Group of Tory eurosceptics, Jacob Rees-Mogg, raised fears of a “plot to stop Brexit”.
“My suspicion is that any delay to Brexit is a plot to stop Brexit,” said Mr ReesMogg, adding: “This would be the most grievous error that politicians could commit.”
Downing Street declined to say how Conservative MPs would be whipped in the votes, or what length of extension would be offered if it came to a motion to extend Article 50.
But Mrs May told the Commons she wanted any delay to be “as short as possible”. Any extension beyond the end of June would require the UK to take part in the upcoming European Parliament elections, while a shorter delay “would almost certainly have to be a oneoff”, she said.
There was no indication of what would happen if MPs vote down Mrs May’s deal and no-deal, and also an extension.
The PM’s announcement came amid mounting expectations of a ministerial revolt, with three members of the Government breaking ranks to warn they would back a cross-party bill designed to prevent a no-deal Brexit.