Johnson loses critical Brexit vote.

LONDON >> Prime Minister Boris Johnson suffered a damaging setback Tuesday in his quest to take Britain out of the European Union, losing a critical vote in Parliament and putting his plans for Brexit on hold, as Britain’s three-year struggle to resolve the issue continued to defy any solution.

Johnson’s latest defeat came only 15 minutes after his first victory in Parliament. Lawmakers granted preliminary approval to the withdrawal deal he struck with the EU last week, a major step toward achieving the prime minister’s goal of Brexit and one that broke a string of defeats for him.

But the lawmakers refused in a crucial followup vote to put legislation enacting Britain’s departure on a fast track to passage, which could have enabled Johnson to meet his deadline of leaving the EU by Oct. 31.

By blocking Johnson, Parliament has thrown the whole process into a legislative netherworld that could mean months of further delays to a process that the nation has long since wearied of and just wants to see end.

It is entirely conceivable that Johnson’s deal will kick around Parliament for weeks, potentially becoming encumbered with amendments that either Johnson or the EU would reject as unacceptable. The best option then, analysts said, would be to give the voters a chance to make themselves heard in a general election.

The back-to-back votes captured the one-step-forward, one-step-back nature of the Brexit saga. While lawmakers endorsed the contours of Johnson’s plan — something they had never done for his predecessor, Theresa May — they balked at being stampeded into passing the necessary legislation in three days.

The EU will now have to decide how long an extension to grant Britain. Johnson said after the votes that he would “pause” the legislation and call European leaders to deliver the message that Britain was not interested in another extension.

Earlier on Tuesday, he said that if the deadlock slipped into next year, he would rather pull the bill altogether and face the voters, calculating that he could still win a popular mandate for a swift Brexit.

But if the EU offers only a short-term extension of a few weeks, Johnson might well continue battling for passage of his Brexit blueprint, betting that the pressure would increase on Parliament to pass a deal that its members had already shown support for in principle.

On a day that encapsulated both the high drama and recurring gridlock of the Brexit debate, Johnson tried to put a good face on the split decision, noting it was the first time a Brexit agreement won a Parliamentary vote.

“How welcome it is, even joyful, that for the first time in this long saga, this House has actually accepted its responsibilities together, come together, and embraced a deal,” Johnson said.

But he expressed dismay that lawmakers “voted for delay” and said the government would accelerate its preparations to leave the EU without any deal. “One way or the other,” Johnson insisted, Britain will leave Europe with “this deal, to which this House has given its assent.”