The Korea Times

May wins no-confidence vote, but is still beset by Brexit

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— British Prime Minister Theresa May survived a no-confidence vote in Parliament, Wednesday to remain in office — but saw more of her power ebb away as she battled to keep Brexit on track after lawmakers demolished her European Union divorce deal.

May won a narrow victory, 325 votes to 306 votes, on an opposition motion seeking to topple her government and trigger a general election.

Now it’s back to Brexit, where May is caught between the rock of her own negotiatin­g red lines and the hard place of a Parliament that wants to force a radical change of course.

After defeating the no-confidence motion, May said she would hold talks “in a constructi­ve spirit” with leaders of opposition parties and other lawmakers in a bid to find a way forward for Britain’s EU exit.

She appeared outside her at 10 Downing St. official residence after meeting the leaders of several smaller parties. The prime minister named the parties in a statement in which she called on opposition politician­s in Parliament to “put self-interest aside” and find a consensus on Britain’s path out of the EU.

Legislator­s ripped up May’s Brexit blueprint Tuesday by rejecting the divorce agreement she has negotiated with the EU over the last two years. That it would lose was widely expected, but the scale of the rout — 432 votes to 202, the biggest defeat government defeat in British parliament­ary history — was devastatin­g for May’s leadership and her Brexit deal.

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