May’s EU-exit plan cast in doubt again

LONDON — The speaker of Britain’s House of Commons threw Prime Minister Theresa May’s plan to attempt to pass her exit deal again — on a third try, probably this week — into doubt Monday.

John Bercow said he would not allow the government to present May’s European Union withdrawal agreement to the House for a third vote unless that deal was “substantially” different from the first two times it was voted down.

The ruling, which overturned May’s strategy to revive her EU-exit deal at the eleventh hour, appeared to blindside 10 Downing Street.

“The speaker did not forewarn us of the content of his statement or the fact that he was making one,” May’s spokesman, who by custom is not identified by name, told reporters.

Bercow’s ruling stoked further uncertainty about a process that has already been widely condemned as chaotic and left lawmakers stunned and wondering aloud what comes next. Britain is scheduled to leave the EU on March 29.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt had told the BBC Monday morning that the government was hopeful there would be a third “meaningful vote” on the exit today.

Robert Buckland, the government’s solicitor general, said the ruling could have “huge reverberations” for the exit process. “We are in a major constitutional crisis here,” he told the BBC.

In January, the 585-page withdrawal agreement May had spent two years negotiating with her European counterparts lost, 432 votes to 202 — with 118 members of her Conservative Party voting against her.

May then made a last-ditch pitch to EU leaders to improve the deal. She succeeded in having some additional legal language attached to the agreement to calm jitters over how to handle the Irish border. But that second attempt also failed last week, 391-242.

The government was hoping that, if May’s deal passed early this week, she would go to Brussels on Thursday and ask for a “technical extension” until the end of June. If her deal did not pass, she was planning to seek a longer delay. The prime minister has warned recalcitrant Tory lawmakers that, if they do not pass the exit deal on offer, Britain will either have to leave the European Union with no deal or delay departure by months, even years.

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, May said that not backing her deal the second time had risked “undesirable alternatives, from not leaving the EU as scheduled on March 29, to the risk of a second referendum, a general election or the increased possibility of leaving without a deal.”

May’s strategy was brought up short by the speaker’s announcement.

“If the Government wishes to bring forward a new proposition that is neither the same nor substantially the same as that disposed of by the House on March 12, this would be entirely in order,” Bercow said.

“What the Government cannot legitimately do is resubmit to the House the same proposition — or substantially the same proposition — as that of last week,” he said.

Bercow appeared to suggest that May might have some wiggle room, but not much. “This ruling should not be regarded as my last word on the subject,” he said. “It is simply meant to indicate the test which the Government must meet in order for me to rule that a third meaningful vote can legitimately be held in this parliamentary session.”

Anna Soubry, a lawmaker who left the Conservative Party over its handling of the EU exit to join the new Independent Group, told Parliament: “This has to be unprecedented, the crisis that’s now upon the country. We’re due to leave the European Union in 11 days, and there is no plan, there is no certainty, and this country is crying out for it, especially business.”

Bercow responded: “I think it would be helpful to the House to have the earliest possible indication of how the Government intends to proceed in this important matter. Part of the responsibility of the Speaker is frankly to speak truth to power. I have always done that. And no matter what, I always will.”

In his ruling, Bercow quoted from the guide to parliamentary procedure that a question “may not be brought forward again during the same session” and that it was a “strong and long-standing convention” dating back to 1604.

Rory Stewart, a Conservative lawmaker, tweeted that he disagreed with the speaker “because these votes respond to an instruction in a referendum, endorsed by Parliament, which rules out dropping back to the status quo.”

In a series of votes last week, Parliament not only voted down May’s exit deal but also insisted that Britain cannot leave the EU with no deal — a “cliff edge” scenario that could create economic havoc for both Britain and Europe.