Uncertainty looms over U.K. as Brexit talks fail

No compromise for parties as May pushed to resign

• Talks between Britain’s Conservative government and the opposition Labour Party seeking a compromise over Brexit broke down without agreement Friday, plunging the country back into a morass of uncertainty over its departure from the European Union.

Each side blamed the other for the collapse. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said the talks with Prime Minister Theresa May’s government had “gone as far as they can.”

“We have been unable to bridge important policy gaps between us,” Corbyn said in a letter to May released by Labour.

And with May set to announce within weeks that she plans to step down, Corbyn said divisions within the ruling Conservative Party meant “it’s a government that is negotiating with no authority and no ability, that I can see, to actually deliver anything.”

But May said divisions within the Labour Party contributed to the breakdown.

“In particular, we have not been able to overcome the fact that there isn’t a common position in Labour about whether they want to deliver Brexit or hold a second referendum, which could reverse it,” she said.

The two sides have held weeks of negotiations to try to agree upon terms for Brexit that can win support in parliament. The talks began after British lawmakers rejected May’s divorce deal with the EU three times.

But the Conservatives and the left-of-centre Labour differ on how close an economic relationship to seek with the EU after the U.K. leaves the bloc.

Britain was due to leave the EU on March 29, but amid the political impasse, the EU extended the Brexit deadline until Oct. 31.

That deadlock deepened this week with the breakdown of the cross-party talks and intensifying pressure on May from within the Conservative Party to quit.

Pro-Brexit Conservatives are furious that Britain hasn’t yet left the EU, almost three years after voters backed Brexit in a referendum. Many of them blame May and want her replaced with a more staunchly pro-Brexit leader such as former foreign secretary Boris Johnson.

On Thursday, May agreed to announce the date of her departure after a vote on her Brexit Bill in the first week of June, regardless of whether it was passed by MPs.

Members of the 1922 executive, an influential Conservative Party group, were in no doubt that May would have to trigger a leadership race by the end of June. She would be expected to stay in office until the new leader was elected.

The race to succeed her is now effectively under way, and Johnson has confirmed he will “go for it”.

The winner will become party leader and prime minister of the U.K. without the need for a general election.

Taiwan’s legislature voted Friday to legalize same-sex marriage, a first in Asia and a boost for LGBT rights activists who had championed the cause for two decades.

Lawmakers pressured by LGBT groups as well as by church organizations opposed to the move approved most of a government-sponsored bill that recognizes same- sex marriages and gives couples many of the tax, insurance and child custody benefits available to male-female married couples.

That makes Taiwan the first place in Asia with a comprehensive law laying out the terms of same-sex marriage.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, a supporter of the law, tweeted: “On May 17th, 2019 in Taiwan, LoveWon. We took a big step toward true equality, and made Taiwan a better country.”

“It’s a breakthrough, I have to say so,” said Shiau Hong-chi, professor of gender studies at Shih-Hsin University in Taiwan.

Taiwan’s constitutional court in May 2017 said the constitution allows samesex marriages and gave parliament two years to adjust laws.

Religion, conservative values and political systems that discourage LGBT activism have slowed momentum toward same-sex marriage in many Asian countries from Japan through much of Southeast Asia, although Thailand is exploring the legalization of same-sex civil partnerships.