Brexit gets green light

LONDON: Britain’s House of Commons voted decisively on Wednesday to authorise Prime Minister Theresa May to trigger the start of the country’s exit from the EU.

The outcome of the vote was never in doubt, even as lawmakers spent a second consecutive day arguing the merits of a departure that the bitterly divided country approved in a June referendum.

The margin of Wednesday evening’s roll call, 498 to 114, gives May a convincing mandate as she prepares to launch divorce talks with the EU by the end of next month. Once that is done, Britain will have two years to negotiate the terms of its departure.