May warns failed Brexit will be a disaster for British democracy
Prime minister pleads for support two days before parliamentary vote on deal with EU which is widely expected to be rejected
British Prime Minister Theresa May warned MPs on Sunday that failing to deliver Brexit would be catastrophic for democracy, in a plea for support two days before parliament is expected to reject her deal with Brussels.
With the clock ticking down to its March 29 exit from the EU and parliament deadlocked, Britain faces a hugely uncertain path that could lead to a disorderly exit or even remaining in the continental bloc.
May, who postponed a vote in parliament on her deal in December after admitting she was set to lose it, said MPs must not let down the people who backed Brexit in the June 2016 referendum. “Doing so would be a catastrophic and unforgivable breach of trust in our democracy,” she wrote in the Sunday Express. “So my message to parliament ... is simple: it is time to forget the games and do what is right for our country.”
May has so far refused to retreat from her unpopular deal, which envisages close trading ties with the EU, but without any of the say on policy that Britain has now. The vexed Brexit issue represents Britain’s biggest shift in foreign and trade policy in more than 40 years.
May’s deal has come under fire from all sides — with opponents of the EU seeking a cleaner break and many pro-Europeans pressing for a second referendum. May is expected to suffer a big defeat when parliament votes on Tuesday.
Brexit minister Stephen Barclay told BBC TV that persuading enough MPs to support the deal would be “challenging” but that even if it were rejected, he suspected parliament would ultimately support something “along the lines of this deal”.
Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said leaving the EU without a deal would be catastrophic and his party would do everything it could to prevent that outcome.
However, Corbyn’s priority is to force a national election and he said he would propose a vote of no confidence in the government “soon” if May loses on Tuesday. After a week in which parliament forced the government to promise to come back with a “plan B” within days if May’s deal were rejected, Barclay said the risk of parliament frustrating Brexit has increased.
The Sunday Times reported that rebel MPs were planning to wrest control of the legislative agenda away from May with a view to suspending or delaying Brexit, citing a senior government source.
Vince Cable, the leader of the pro-EU Liberal Democrats, said parliament would act to prevent a no-deal Brexit, and could ultimately seek to prevent Brexit altogether. “I think parliament will take control of this process, will insist that we pursue the option of no Brexit,” he told BBC TV. Cable said this could be done by revoking Article 50, the mechanism which triggered the exit process, or by holding a second referendum.
Asked about another referendum, Labour leader Corbyn told BBC TV: “My own view is that I would rather get a negotiated deal now, if we can, to stop the danger of a no-deal exit from the EU on the 29th of March which would be catastrophic for industry, catastrophic for trade.”
Corbyn said that if he forced a national election and his party won, Brexit may have to be delayed while they negotiated a new deal with the EU.
“An election would take place in February-March time. Clearly there is only a few weeks then between that and the leave date, there would have to be a time for those negotiations,” he said.