MPs reject May’s Brexit deal again
THERESA May’s Brexit strategy has been dealt a devastating blow after the House of Commons rejected her EU Withdrawal Agreement by an overwhelming majority for the second time.
MPs voted by 391 to 242 against the deal last night, despite the Prime Minister’s assurance that new agreements reached with Jean-Claude Juncker in Strasbourg would ensure the UK cannot be trapped in the controversial backstop arrangement indefinitely.
Although the 149 margin was reduced from the record 230-vote defeat of the first “meaningful vote” in January, Mrs May was left far adrift from a majority with just 17 days to go to the scheduled date of Brexit on March 29.
Some 75 Conservative MPs rebelled to vote against the deal, while just three Labour MPs and four independents joined the 235 Tories who backed it.
European Commission president Mr Juncker had already warned that if MPs turned down the package agreed in Strasbourg on Monday, there would be “no third chance” to renegotiate.
In line with a promise set out by Mrs May last month, MPs are now due to vote tomorrow on whether they are willing for the UK to leave the EU without a deal on March 29.
Mrs May announced that she will grant Conservative MPs a free vote on the motion.
If MPs reject no-deal, a third vote will follow tomorrow on whether to authorise Mrs May to request an extension of the two-year Article 50 negotiation process.
A Labour Party spokesman said: “Allowing a free vote on no-deal shows Theresa May has given up any pretence of leading the country. Once again, she’s putting her party’s interests ahead of the public interest.”
Mrs May said that she still believed that leaving with a deal was the best option for Britain and that “the deal we’ve negotiated is the best and indeed the only deal available”.
She added: “Let me be clear. Voting against leaving without a deal and for an extension does not solve the problems we face.
“The EU will want to know what use we mean to make of such an extension and this House will have to answer that question. Does it wish to revoke Article 50? Does it want to hold a second referendum? Or does it want to leave with a deal, but not this deal?
“These are unenviable choices. Thanks to the decision that the House has made this evening, they are choices that must now be faced.”
An extension requires the unanimous agreement of all 27 remaining member states, and Mr Juncker has warned that it cannot stretch beyond May 23 unless the UK takes part in the European Parliament elections starting on that date.
Following the vote, a spokesman for European Council president Donald Tusk said: “On the EU side we have done all that is possible to reach an agreement.”