British lawmakers have decisively rejected a no-deal Brexit, inflicting another heavy defeat on Britain’s embattled Prime Minister and paving the way for the UK’s departure from the EU to be delayed.
The UK Parliament voted to strike out the option of leaving the European Union without a deal in any circumstances, in a motion that was worded more strongly than one Theresa May had proposed.
Some pro-EU members of May’s Cabinet refused to support the government’s position, in a gesture of defiance that in any other circumstances would have led to their dismissal. Their continued presence in the government — to the fury of Brexiteers — served only to underline the Prime Minister’s weakness.
Westminster was bracing itself for a third consecutive day of drama on Thursday, when lawmakers will decide whether Brexit should be postponed beyond the current March 29 deadline.
Wednesday’s no-deal vote, carried by 321 to 278, doesn’t change the default legal position, which is that Britain crashes out of the EU in just over two weeks unless a deal is in place or Brussels agrees to a delay. The prospect of a no-deal Brexit raises fears of food shortages in supermarkets, port delays, and a rise in long-simmering tensions in Northern Ireland.
May told the House of Commons that it would face important choices in the coming days. “The legal default in UK and EU law remains that the UK will leave the EU without a deal unless something else is agreed,” she said after the vote.
She said that the government would ask the EU to delay Brexit if Parliament could agree on a withdrawal deal. “If the House finds a way in the coming days to support a deal, it would allow the government to seek a short technical extension. Such a short technical extension is only likely to be on offer if there’s a deal in place.”
Without consensus on a deal in the coming days, there will need to be a longer extension which would force the UK to take part in elections to the European Parliament in May, she said. “I do not think that would be the right outcome,” the Prime Minister told lawmakers.
The prospect of the UK Parliament backing May’s withdrawal deal seems remote. Lawmakers overwhelmingly rejected it for a second time on Tuesday, furious about a contentious guarantee, known as the Irish backstop.
The backstop is intended to prevent the return of border infrastructure in Northern Ireland by keeping customs arrangements between the UK and the Republic of Ireland aligned. But euroskeptic lawmakers feared it would indefinitely bind the UK closer to the EU’s rules.
Any request by the UK to delay Brexit must be agreed by Brussels. But the mood has been hardening among European politicians, who seem reluctant to reopen negotiations for a withdrawal deal or grant a delay to Brexit without any specific purpose.
