U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May today met with Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who critics describe as a Marxist, to try to break the Brexit deadlock in the House of Commons, the British parliament. May repeatedly promised the British electorate that Brexit means Brexit, that the U.K. would officially escape the Brussels-based European Union on March 29, and that no deal is better than a bad deal. She has lived up to none of those commitments. The deal that she negotiated, which Brexit champion Nigel Farage calls a surrender document and a binding treaty, would actually keep the U.K. trapped in the EU as a non-voting member, i.e. Brexit in Name Only (BRINO).
Tag: Brexit withdrawal agreement
The U.K. House of Parliament today voted down Theresa May’s Brexit withdrawal agreement for a third time. It was a smaller defeat (344 to 286) than the previous two tries, but a loss nonetheless. Several stalwart Conservative Brexiteers such as Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg reluctantly voted for the deal only because they concluded the alternative was no Brexit at all. The Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland, whose 10 MPs have kept May’s coalition in power, held firm and once again voted against it. While Labor is mostly pro-EU, their MPs for the most part nonetheless voted against the deal for political reasons. The Remain-dominated Parliament, including PM May, has already and foolishly ruled out a no-deal Brexit, which would trigger WTO rules, even though various public- and private-sector entities have come forward to say that they are prepared for that eventuality. Opinion polls suggest that the general public and rank-and-file Conservative Party members favor getting out of the EU without a deal.
Under British law, the U.K. is scheduled to officially leave (or exit) the European Union on March 29. Because of opposition to her Brexit withdrawal agreement on both sides of the aisle for different reasons, there are rumblings that Prime Minister Theresa May may seek to extend the two-year, Article 50 deadline. This is occurring despite May’s Conservative Party promising to implement Brexit on schedule. Against this backdrop, seven pro-EU Labor Party members of parliament bolted the party to form The Independent Group [TIG] because Labor has gone hard-left under its leader Jeremy Corbyn and harbors anti-Semites. It’s difficult see how they define themselves as centrists, though, in that they want to keep the U.K. under the thumb of EU bureaucrats. They were later joined by three Conservatives who similarly oppose leaving the EU with no deal. Two additional Labor MP subsequently quit the party in protest over rampant anti-Semitism, Both declined to join TIG, one because he is pro-Brexit.
As expected, Theresa May has failed to gain U.K. parliamentary approval for the Brexit withdrawal agreement. The vote against the plan, which Leave advocates characterized as Brexit in Name Only, was rejected overwhelmingly in the House of Commons. The margin is being described as the worst parliamentary defeat ever for a U.K. administration.
Update: May is returning to London where she will face a no-confidence vote on Wednesday in the House of Commons. The results are expected to be released at around 4 p.m. U.S. Eastern time.