LONDON — Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal was beaten down for an amazing, unprecedented, pitiful third time by the British Parliament on Friday, with all bets off now on when or how the United Kingdom will leave the European Union.
The E.U. had given Britain until the end of this week to approve the withdrawal agreement. Now it has until April 12 to propose a new way forward, or crash out of the bloc without a deal.
May called the results “grave.”
The leader of the Labour Party opposition, Jeremy Corbyn, called for a general election.
Within minutes of the vote, European leaders on the other side of the English channel agreed to convene in Brussels on April 10 for crisis discussions.
Speaking after the vote, May said “once again, we have been unable to support leaving the European Union in an orderly fashion.”
May said, “I fear we are reaching the limits of this process in this House. This House has rejected no deal, it has rejected no Brexit, on Wednesday it rejected all the variations of the deal on the table and today it has rejected approving the withdrawal agreement alone.”
The prime minister’s stripped-down version of her twice-defeated Brexit deal lost by 58 votes — 344 to 286 — in yet another “last ditch” and “cliff edge” attempt to exit from the European Union.
The third losing vote for May in the House of Commons came on the day Britain was due to “take back control” and depart the continental trading bloc.
May’s orderly Brexit is now in tatters. It is possible that Britain will leave with no deal, or will seek a long extension.
Instead of Brexiteers gulping pints and waving Union Jack flags to celebrate what they were, once upon a time, calling “British Independence Day,” (copyright pending re: American Revolution) the parliamentarians are still debating how and whether they want to leave.
“Today should have been the day that the United Kingdom left the European Union. That we are not leaving today is a matter of deep personal regret to me,” May said, moments before lawmakers started voting.
“There are those who will say, ‘the House has rejected every option so far, you’ll probably lose, so why bother?’ I bother because this is the last opportunity to guarantee Brexit,” she said.
The prime minister offered to resign if her own Conservative Party could help deal over the line. And that did help convince some members to back it — but not enough.
In a series of tweets on Friday morning, Boris Johnson, Britain’s former foreign secretary and a favorite to replace May, explained his screeching U-turn.
Recall: Johnson once described May’s deal as something akin to donning a “suicide vest,” but on Friday said that not voting for it posed the “risk of being forced to accept an even worse version of Brexit or losing Brexit altogether.”
Dominic Raab, the former Brexit secretary and another potential contender for May’s job, said he was now on board.
“I will vote for the motion,” he said, prompting cheers and jeers in the Commons on Friday.
Backing it will “stave off a longer extension and prevent European elections in May,” Raab said
But May needed more than just Conservative Party “switchers.” She needed the Democratic Unionist Party, who voted against the government.
She also needed a handful of Labour lawmakers.
On Friday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told Parliament the deal was “bad for our democracy, bad for our economy and bad for this country” and he urged lawmakers “not to not to be cajoled for this third-time-lucky strategy and vote it down today.”
The House of Commons voted only on part of the Brexit treaty — the 585-page withdrawal agreement. That’s the part of the treaty that spells out, in a legally binding way, how much Britain will pay to leave the European Union ($50 billion), how the two-year transition will preserve the status quo for trade and travel (no change), and how Britain and the European Union will treat each other’s citizens in the interim (nobody gets kicked out of anybody’s country).
The withdrawal agreement also includes the controversial “Irish backstop,” an ironclad guarantee to preserve the open, invisible border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland — with trade-offs that have been a stopping point in the past.
Parliament did not vote Friday on the second part of the treaty, the political declaration, which sets out the aspirations for the future relationship on trade, security and borders.
When European leaders meet next month, they hope to hear a clear plan from May about a fresh approach to Brexit, along with a willingness to hold elections for European Parliament to buy Britain some time. If not, they will brace themselves for a disorderly British departure just two days after they meet.
The defeat sparked immediate concern across Europe. “Very discouraging. UK must now show a way to avoid a #NoDeal,” wrote Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen on Twitter. “Almost out of options and time. We will intensify our no deal preparations.”
European diplomats watched the British proceedings with increasing alarm – yes, apparently it was still possible for them to get more worried — and were hashing out the day-after scenarios for a disorderly Brexit.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who fears that Ireland has not done enough to get ready to defend its border with Northern Ireland against smuggling, plans to visit Dublin next week to press leaders there.
E.U. ambassadors, meanwhile, gathered Thursday to sort out their conditions for talks with Britain if it crashes out without a divorce deal.
Britain would have to commit to paying its E.U. bills of at least $51 billion. It would need to find a way to keep the Irish border open – potentially by keeping Northern Ireland within the E.U. customs zone, exactly what Brexiteers loathe. And it would have to extend rights to E.U. citizens living in Britain, according to a diplomat familiar with the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose confidential discussions.
If British lawmakers decide they want a closer relationship with the European Union than they have already negotiated, E.U. diplomats say there is flexibility and willingness to keep talking. But Britain would have to organize European elections in May so that it remains an E.U. member in good standing.
In Brussels, the top British E.U. official, European Commissioner Julian King, was spotted walking through a park “somewhat aimless and forlornly,” according to Sam Morgan, the journalist with the Euractiv publication who spotted him.
“Short break!” King replied on Twitter, and said he was otherwise busy working as normal.
On social media, the search term trending was “Kafka Brexit,” in a nod to the never-ending bureaucratic nightmares of Franz Kafka’s fictional world.
Also popular: A Banksy painting portraying the members of Parliament as chimps, on display at the Bristol Museum.
When a BBC reporter asked a cabinet minister why the prime minister would hold the vote when she almost certainly faces defeat, he was told: “F--- knows. I am past caring. It is like the living dead in here.”
On Friday, the newly-formed group of lawmakers known as the Independent Group applied to form a new political party called ChangeUK, which hopes to field candidates in the European elections if Britain takes part in them. The group is formed of 11 politicians who broke away from the Conservative and Labour Party over their handling of Brexit.
Read more
What is Brexit? Britain’s political drama explained.
Brits pretend they’re sick of Brexit. But truth is they’re obsessed.
Theresa May must pass her Brexit deal next week. The odds are against her.
Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world
Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/brexit-live-updates/2019/03/29/a3e055b2-517d-11e9-bdb7-44f948cc0605_story.html
2019-03-29 15:18:07Z
52780249686109
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar