May in Brexit turmoil
ABUJA - Flooding caused by torrential rains on Nigeria's border with Niger has left 49 people dead and another 20 missing, the emergency services said yesterday.
Five villages in Jibia district were affected after a river burst its banks following hours of heavy rains overnight Sunday, Aminu Waziri, the head of the Katsina state emergency management agency, adding "we have recovered 49 dead bodies from the five villages and we are still searching for 20 others," he added. LONDON - UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s ability to deliver Brexit was thrown into doubt as infighting in her Conservative Party left her with a perilously small majority, staggering from one vote to the next.
May’s majority was cut to just three votes after she adopted Brexiteer amendments to a key piece of customs legislation, and the proposals narrowly passed through the House of Commons late on Monday.
The closeness of the ballots and the strength of feeling on both sides of her divided party underlined the scale of her task in getting the final Brexit deal she negotiates with the European Union through Parliament.
A 10th member of her government quit on Monday to vote against her - this time in favour of a soft Brexit - and May needed the backing of three rebels from the opposition Labour Party to win.
With her team split down the middle over how to handle the biggest issue facing the country, time is running out. She has just three months left before an October deadline to secure an exit deal ahead of the country’s formal departure in March.
The rebellions are “a prelude to the big - and real - battle coming in the winter when the PM comes back with her deal and we know what the choice is. And whether she can continue,” Tory lawmaker George Freeman, who used to head May’s policy board, said in a posting on Instagram.
“Brexit is coming home to roost. And it won’t be easy or pleasant.”
Monday night showed just how difficult it is for May to plot a course between proand anti-Brexit lawmakers in her party. Until this month, she managed this by avoiding taking a side.
But on July 6, May came off the fence and proposed what’s become known as her “Chequers Plan,” which would keep the UK close to the EU after it has left, but outside the customs union.
For May, it was a leastworst option, aimed not so much as satisfying anyone but at giving something to everyone. But pro-Brexit Conservative lawmakers were outraged. Two cabinet ministers – Boris Johnson and David Davis quit in protest, claiming May is failing to deliver the clean break from the EU the public voted for in the referendum.