May to seek third Brexit vote Friday

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Europe

02:47

The British government said it intended to bring back Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal for a third vote in parliament on Friday to avoid a chaotic no-deal divorce from the EU.

May's throw of the dice comes a day after her dramatic pledge to resign in order to persuade her rivals to finally back her vision for breaking Britain's 46-year bond with the European project.

Brexit deadlock: What steps will the UK make next?

The government's back is against the wall as it tries to avert potential economic disaster and financial panic in the coming weeks.

The House of Commons leader Andrea Leadsom said the government was trying to secure permission for a third vote from parliament speaker John Bercow.

Pro-Brexit demonstrators are seen holding placards during a protest outside the Houses of Parliament, March 27, 2019. /VCG Photo

He already rejected a similar attempt last week after ruling that the version May was bringing back was essentially the same text that lawmakers had already twice rejected by resounding margins.

"We recognize that any motion brought forward tomorrow will need to be compliant with the speaker's ruling and that discussion is ongoing," Leadsom told the chamber.

Also on Thursday, May's de facto deputy said parliament's inconclusive votes on alternative Brexit solutions showed that May's deal was the only way out of the country's impasse on how to leave the European Union.

"I think what those results demonstrate is that there are no easy simple options," Cabinet Office minister David Lidington said in a speech to business leaders. "The deal the government has negotiated is the best option available."

Newspapers show front pages reporting on the news that British Prime Minister Theresa May offered to resign if her EU Withdrawal Deal was voted through parliament to allow a different approach to the second stage of Brexit, March 28, 2019. /VCG Photo

Anxious EU leaders last week offered Britain a Brexit extension until May 22, but it is conditional on parliament voting through May's deal by Friday – the day Britain was originally scheduled to leave.

Failure to pass the deal could mean a no-deal Brexit as early as April 12.

'Blindfold Brexit'

The prime minister's handling of Brexit has provoked anger, frustration and ridicule at home and abroad.

She played what may have been her last political card on Wednesday by promising to quit once the first stage of the messy divorce process is complete.

"I know there is a desire for a new approach – and new leadership – in the second phase of the Brexit negotiations and I won't stand in the way of that," May told a packed meeting of party members.

A video grab from footage broadcast by the UK Parliament's Parliamentary Recording Unit (PRU) shows former foreign minister Boris Johnson as he speaks in the House of Commons in London, July 18, 2018. /VCG Photo

Her promise won over some likely contenders for her job.

Former foreign minister Boris Johnson said he would now back the premier "on behalf of the 17.4 million people who voted for Brexit" in the deeply divisive 2016 referendum.

But the opposition Labour party said May's pledge only created more uncertainties by leaving open the question of who would lead the trade talks that will define EU-UK relations for decades to come.

Deal or no deal, Brexit uncertainty is bad

"It's even more of a blindfold Brexit," Labour's Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer said.

"We now know that the outcome of our future relationship with the EU is not going to be determined by her."

Meanwhile, the prime minister's position was undermined further when her allies in Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) said they would continue to oppose the deal.

Source(s): AFP