Perhaps by announcing before the vote that she won’t seek reelection in 2022, beleaguered U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May has survived a non-confidence vote in the House of Commons, the British parliament.
There is some chatter on social media that May only indicated her “intention” to step down before the next national election, however.
The PM’s margin of victory in Wednesday’s balloting was just 83 votes (200 lawmakers backed her versus 117 that want her to step down). About 100 of the May supporters in parliament collect an additional salary as members of her administration (which in the U.K. is referred to as “the government) in some capacity.
Under parliamentary rules, May’s foes can’t force another challenge to her leadership for one year. The no-confidence motion needed 159 votes to pass.
As this blog has discussed previously, lawmakers across the spectrum still overwhelmingly oppose the Brexit withdrawal agreement that May and her team negotiated with the European Union.
“The [no-confidence] vote was triggered by 48 of her MPs angry at her Brexit policy, which they say betrays the 2016 referendum result,” the BBC reported.
May, who is still stubbornly pushing a deal that critics call Brexit in Name Only, or worse, because it fails to restore U.K. self-government, is headed back to EU Hq. in Brussels to seek concessions that the EU has already vowed won’t be forthcoming.
Brexit champion Nigel Farage previously described May’s EU deal as “the worst deal in history.” Among many others, he advocates leaving the EU with no deal, after which World Trade Organization rules would kick in, rather than May’s Deal. About 90 percent of international commerce operates under WTO rules.
Theresa May’s win today in no way alters the political facts on the ground, the Spectator of London notes. “It is still not clear how she can get modifications to her Brexit deal or get that deal through the Commons. So, in short, despite all the drama today, nothing has changed.”
Added the BBC: “The prime minister still faces a battle to get the Brexit deal she agreed with the EU through the U.K. Parliament, with all opposition parties and dozens of her own MPs against it.”
According to the British political blog Guido Fawkes,
“The fact that over two thirds of her backbenchers expressed no confidence in her is a stark reminder of just how little support there is for her deal in Parliament…[May] will need to come back [from Brussels] with much more than just empty words if she is going to have a hope of getting her deal through Parliament, and perhaps even her Cabinet. Whatever happens now, it won’t just be business as usual…”
Many of the pro-EU “Remainers” in Britain still won’t accept the results of the June 2016 Brexit referendum similar to the way the Trump haters can’t accept the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
