BRITISH PM SEEN TO OFFER POST IN EXCHANGE FOR PASSAGE OF BREXIT
LONDON— British Prime Minister Theresa May is expected on Wednesday to offer her resignation in exchange for the ratification of her twice-defeated Brexit deal.
Lawmakers on Wednesday grabbed control of the situation and called for “indicative votes” on the kind of Brexit they want if they want it at all.
More supporters
Just two days before the United Kingdom was originally due to leave the EU on March 29, some of the most influential Brexiteers, such as Jacob ReesMogg, have now fallen in behind May’s deal.
May is expected to indicate a date for her resignation at a showdown with Conservative Party lawmakers during its 1922 Committee in Westminster.
Lawmakers also started a debate on what sort of EU divorce the world’s fifth largest economy should go for and they were expected to vote for as many proposals as they wish.
“The prime minister might get a deal over the line on Thursday or Friday,” said Oliver Letwin, a former Conservative cabinet minister who led Parliament’s unusual power grab. “If she does, no one would be happier than I am.”
“If, however, that doesn’t happen and if we do go forward to Monday, and if on Monday one or more propositions get a majority backing in the House of Commons, then we will have to work with the government to get the government to implement them,” he added.
The uncertainty around Brexit, the United Kingdom’s most significant political and economic move since World War II, has left allies and investors aghast.
Opponents feared Brexit will divide the West as it grapples with both the unconventional US presidency of Donald Trump and growing assertiveness from Russia and China.
Better in the long term
Supporters have said that while the divorce might bring some short-term instability, it would also allow the United Kingdom to thrive if cut free from what they cast as a doomed experiment in European unity.
May’s deal, an attempt to soothe the divide of the 2016 referendum by leaving the formal structures of the EU while preserving close economic and security ties, was defeated in parliament by 149 votes on March 12 and by 230 votes on Jan. 15.