British PM trying to avoid historic defeat
Ahead of a vote on her Brexit plan that could go down to a humiliating defeat in Parliament, Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain was fighting Monday less to avert the loss than to limit its scale.
In that vein, May enlisted fresh promises from Europe’s most senior officials through an exchange of letters and warned supporters of Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union that the whole project would be threatened if her deal was voted down as expected.
Neither tactic looked likely to change the overall outcome, but if May can curb the magnitude of any defeat to manageable proportions, she could avert an immediate political meltdown. That, given the precarious state of events, would be a victory of sorts.
Speaking in a ceramics factory in Stokeon-Trent, an area that voted heavily to leave the European Union, May warned that Britain’s failure to withdraw from the bloc would risk “a subversion of the democratic process” and do “catastrophic harm” to faith in politics.
Though she carefully refused to rule it out, May insisted that she has no intention of seeking to extend the negotiating deadline of March 29 laid down under Article 50 of the EU’s treaty.
Even in defeat, May wants to show that, in a Parliament paralyzed over Brexit, her plan still has more support than likely alternatives, like negotiating closer ties to the European Union, rethinking Brexit altogether through a second referendum, or leaving without any deal at all.
The stakes are high because a crushing defeat in the vote Tuesday could destroy May’s strategy of keeping her plan alive in the hope that, as other options falter, lawmakers will support hers out of desperation.
A severe loss, meaning by more than 100 votes in Parliament, would reduce prospects of Britain winning further concessions from EU officials. They are loath to give ground unless it seems like May needs only a small push to get over the finish line.
May faces a rebellion from many of her own lawmakers who are angry about the so-called “backstop” plan to keep the Irish border open for the free flow of goods after Britain leaves the bloc. Brexiteers fear that this could keep Britain tied to the European Union indefinitely, while the Democratic Unionist Party from Northern Ireland, which props up May’s government, is petrified about its part of the country being separated economically from the rest of the United Kingdom.
May seems to have calculated that her best hope is to cajole some hard-line Conservative Party Brexiteers into supporting her, even if they hate her plan, for fear of something worse. Her hand has been strengthened by machinations in Parliament in recent days, as lawmakers have tried to wrest control of the Brexit process, to inconclusive results, from a government that has no clear majority.