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Brexit Process Remains Deadlocked as Theresa May Searches for Support Brexit Process Remains Deadlocked, but Theresa May Plans a Last-Ditch Vote on Friday
(about 2 hours later)
LONDON — Britain’s tottering efforts to leave the European Union remained at an impasse on Thursday as allies of Prime Minister Theresa May tried to keep her deal alive in the face of unbending opposition.LONDON — Britain’s tottering efforts to leave the European Union remained at an impasse on Thursday as allies of Prime Minister Theresa May tried to keep her deal alive in the face of unbending opposition.
The deal, already defeated twice in Parliament, was given new life on Wednesday after Mrs. May promised Conservative Party colleagues who are hard-line supporters of leaving the bloc that she would step down if it were passed, and let someone else take over the next stage of talks with Brussels for the process known as Brexit.The deal, already defeated twice in Parliament, was given new life on Wednesday after Mrs. May promised Conservative Party colleagues who are hard-line supporters of leaving the bloc that she would step down if it were passed, and let someone else take over the next stage of talks with Brussels for the process known as Brexit.
[Who could be Britain’s next prime minister? Here are some contenders.][Who could be Britain’s next prime minister? Here are some contenders.]
But even her offer to resign was not enough to assuage hard-line Conservatives or her putative allies in the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland, or D.U.P., who hate the deal.But even her offer to resign was not enough to assuage hard-line Conservatives or her putative allies in the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland, or D.U.P., who hate the deal.
So the government debuted a new tack on Thursday: Ministers said they would disassemble Mrs. May’s deal into its two parts — one called the withdrawal agreement, and the other the political declaration — and ask Parliament to vote Friday only on the first.So the government debuted a new tack on Thursday: Ministers said they would disassemble Mrs. May’s deal into its two parts — one called the withdrawal agreement, and the other the political declaration — and ask Parliament to vote Friday only on the first.
The withdrawal agreement outlines the terms of Britain’s exit from the European Union, while the political declaration deals with the tangled question of its future relationship with the bloc.The withdrawal agreement outlines the terms of Britain’s exit from the European Union, while the political declaration deals with the tangled question of its future relationship with the bloc.
The speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, has said he would allow Parliament to vote again only if the plan had changed substantially since it had been rejected resoundingly — twice — and on Thursday he said the government had met that test.The speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, has said he would allow Parliament to vote again only if the plan had changed substantially since it had been rejected resoundingly — twice — and on Thursday he said the government had met that test.
Passing the withdrawal agreement, ministers hoped, would keep pro-Europeans in Parliament from taking more assertive steps to frustrate Brexit and avoid a longer delay. Ministers were pitching the vote to pro-Brexit hard-liners as their last opportunity to secure Britain’s exit from the European Union in the coming months, lest anti-Europeans in Parliament take control and try to frustrate Brexit or force a longer delay.
Ministers also hoped the date of the vote — March 29, the originally scheduled day for Britain’s exit — would put some symbolic pressure on pro-Brexit Conservatives to swallow their objections and back Mrs. May.
But the withdrawal agreement contains some of the most contentious pieces of Mrs. May’s plan.But the withdrawal agreement contains some of the most contentious pieces of Mrs. May’s plan.
Among them is the so-called backstop arrangement that at least temporarily binds Britain and, to a greater extent, Northern Ireland, to European trading rules so as to avoid customs checks on the historically contentious border between Ireland, part of the European Union, and Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. Among them is the so-called backstop that at least temporarily binds Britain and, to a greater extent, Northern Ireland, to European trading rules so as to avoid customs checks on the historically contentious border between Ireland, part of the European Union, and Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom.
Unionists in Northern Ireland have rejected those plans for the Irish border. They believe they would create regulatory differences between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom, putting the union at risk. Unionists in Northern Ireland reject the backstop because they believe it would create regulatory differences between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom, putting the union at risk.
And some Conservative lawmakers said on Thursday that Mrs. May’s promise to resign had been wholly insufficient anyway. And British news media reports late Thursday said unionists intended to vote against Mrs. May’s plan again on Friday, considerably narrowing the prime minister’s path to victory.
“I will vote against it because, unfortunately, it means we don’t leave the European Union — it leaves us hanging half in and half out,” Mark Francois, a Conservative lawmaker who supports Brexit, told the BBC. “Not one punctuation mark in the treaty — it is a treaty we’re voting on — has changed. Nothing has changed.” There was some hope among Conservatives that splitting Mrs. May’s plan in two would strengthen her case with opposition Labour lawmakers, whose main objections are to the political declaration and not the withdrawal agreement.
Dominic Raab, one of Mrs. May’s former Brexit secretaries, also said on Thursday that the prime minister’s latest pleas were not enough to get him to back her plan. But Labour leaders reacted angrily to the idea on Thursday, noting that Mrs. May had previously said the two pieces of her plan were inextricably linked.
Instead, he said, the government should try to extract more concessions from Brussels, and if that failed, to prepare to leave the bloc without a deal — an option that many analysts say would be calamitous. Keir Starmer, a senior Labour official, warned on Thursday that splitting them “would leave us with the blindest of blindfold Brexits.” He was referring to Labour’s fear that, if Parliament passed part of Mrs. May’s plan and the prime minister resigned, a hard-line pro-Brexit politician like Boris Johnson would take over and shape the crucial next stage of negotiations.
Reports in British media said that Mrs. May’s allies were still lobbying the D.U.P., believing that there was no alternative that better matched the party’s goals. Stephen Doughty, a Labour member of Parliament, said, “This looks to me like trickery of the highest order.”
Damian Green, a Conservative lawmaker who is a close ally of Mrs. May’s, said on Thursday that the prime minister would “take the path of soldiering on.” Confusion swirled all day in Parliament about the government’s plans, with ministers leaving lawmakers in the dark about what they would be voting on Friday until late in the afternoon.
But suddenly, Mrs. May also has to contend with several alternate plans. Meanwhile anti-Brexit lawmakers were working behind the scenes to pick a few alternate plans to put before Parliament on Monday, in case Mrs. May’s deal did not pass before then.
For the first time in two years of Brexit negotiations, Parliament voted on Wednesday on a catalog of proposals that clashed with Mrs. May’s, trying to show that a compromise solution could attract a majority. The anti-Brexit lawmakers were buoyed by votes in Parliament on Wednesday night on a catalog of proposals that clashed with Mrs. May’s.
Those included once-radical ideas like holding a second public vote on Brexit or revoking Britain’s decision to leave altogether, as well as Brexit plans that would see Britain keep closer ties to Europe than Mrs. May’s proposal envisioned.Those included once-radical ideas like holding a second public vote on Brexit or revoking Britain’s decision to leave altogether, as well as Brexit plans that would see Britain keep closer ties to Europe than Mrs. May’s proposal envisioned.
To the chagrin of her opponents, all eight alternate plans failed to muster a majority, leading the British newspaper The Guardian to run this headline on its front page on Thursday: “No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.” The votes represented the first time in two years of Brexit negotiations that Parliament was allowed to express its feelings about alternate plans, and some lawmakers hoped they would show a path to compromise.
A plan for a customs union between Britain and the European Union got closest, losing by eight votes. And the option of holding another referendum to test Britons’ views about leaving the bloc attracted more support than expected: 268 members voted in favor, and 295 against. But to the chagrin of Mrs. May’s opponents, all eight alternate plans failed to muster a majority, leading the British newspaper The Guardian to run this headline on its front page on Thursday: “No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.”
Some proposals got close. A plan for a customs union between Britain and the European Union lost by six votes. (Mr. Bercow said a tallying error had originally led him to say it was an eight-vote margin.)
And the option of holding another referendum to test Britons’ views about leaving the bloc attracted more support than expected: 268 members voted in favor, and 295 against.
The result on the proposal for a second referendum, coming after a weekend when hundreds of thousands of people marched in London for another vote and more than five million signed a petition asking to cancel Brexit, was a sign of how the views of anti-Brexit politicians have grown more intense as the process drags on.The result on the proposal for a second referendum, coming after a weekend when hundreds of thousands of people marched in London for another vote and more than five million signed a petition asking to cancel Brexit, was a sign of how the views of anti-Brexit politicians have grown more intense as the process drags on.
The nonbinding votes set the stage for another round of debate in Parliament on Monday, when the menu of alternate options is to be whittled and politicians given a second chance to coalesce behind a new plan.The nonbinding votes set the stage for another round of debate in Parliament on Monday, when the menu of alternate options is to be whittled and politicians given a second chance to coalesce behind a new plan.
Britain’s departure from the European Union, once scheduled for Friday, has been delayed until at least April 12 if Parliament does not accept Mrs. May’s deal, though Britain could ask for a longer extension. The European Union approved an extension to May 22 if the prime minister’s plan gained approval. If Mrs. May’s withdrawal agreement passes on Friday, Parliament would meet the European Union’s deadline for completing the Brexit process and extracting Britain from the bloc by May 22.
Mrs. May’s offer to resign was another reminder that, for all the anxiety in Britain over Brexit, politics in Parliament are still dictated to a large degree by members’ leadership ambitions. If not, Britain could crash out of the bloc without a deal on April 12 in what analysts say would be a calamitous exit, or it could ask for a longer extension.
Pro-Brexit politicians like Boris Johnson have long been angling to take over from Mrs. May, and the chance to do so sooner rather than later seemed to be enough for many to back down from months of fierce opposition to her deal. Mrs. May’s offer to resign was another reminder that, for all the anxiety in Britain over Brexit, Conservative Party politics are still dictated to a large degree by members’ leadership ambitions.
Pro-Brexit politicians like Mr. Johnson have long been angling to take over from Mrs. May, and the chance to do so sooner rather than later seemed to be enough for many to back down from months of fierce opposition to her deal.
Mr. Johnson once said that Mrs. May’s deal had strapped a “suicide vest” around the country. Another hard-line pro-Brexit lawmaker, Jacob Rees-Mogg, said the prime minister’s plan would turn Britain into “a slave state.”Mr. Johnson once said that Mrs. May’s deal had strapped a “suicide vest” around the country. Another hard-line pro-Brexit lawmaker, Jacob Rees-Mogg, said the prime minister’s plan would turn Britain into “a slave state.”
On Wednesday, both said they would back her deal.On Wednesday, both said they would back her deal.