LONDON – The British parliament has rejected, for the third and final time, a deal fixing the terms of the country’s withdrawal from the European Union.

In an unusual Friday afternoon parliamentary sitting (March 29), ironically held precisely on the day Britain was initially supposed to leave the EU, the deal which the British government negotiated on Brexit – as the process of the country’s separation from Europe is popularly known – was rejected by a vote of 344 to 286, a majority against the government of 58 MPs.

The rejection almost certainly signifies the end of Prime Minister Theresa May’s political career. But it also plunges Britain and the rest of Europe into years of further political uncertainty.

The British prime minister has spent two years negotiating the Brexit deal with European Union officials, and largely away from the public eye. That turned out to be a catastrophic mistake for, when the Brexit deal was presented for ratification before parliament in London, it was denounced by both members of Theresa May’s ruling Conservatives and all opposition parties, and rejected by the biggest majority ever cast against a sitting government.

The logical approach would have been to renegotiate the Brexit deal. But that would have meant making concessions to Europe which Mrs May refused to consider. Instead, her strategy was to just present again the same deal to parliament in London, in the hope that, as the deadline for Britain’s departure from the EU approached, lawmakers would rally behind her plan, if only because of a lack of alternatives.

The strategy entailed breaking or bypassing parliamentary rules which prohibit resubmitting the same proposal already rejected by MPs. It also meant forcing lawmakers to work on Friday, a day not usually given to substantial parliamentary debates. But all to no avail for – although her third defeat on the Brexit deal today (Friday) is by a much smaller margin than the record 230-strong majority against the deal recorded in the British parliament at the start of this year – the result is the same: a refusal to ratify the deal.

And this time, the rejection is final, for although Mrs May told parliament immediately after the vote that she remains “committed to an orderly Brexit”, it is inconceivable that she would be able to resurrect the document she negotiated; “I feel we are reaching the limits of this process”, Theresa May ruefully admitted soon after the results of the parliamentary vote were announced.

Having failed to ratify the Brexit deal by today, Britain is now locked into a process which is largely in the European Union’s hands. Leaders of the EU’s remaining 27 member-states now have the option of either refusing to extend Britain’s negotiating period which means that the British would leave the EU without a deal on 12 April, or insist on a longer extension of perhaps a year or two, during which Europe’s entire approach to Britain would have to be analysed.

An emergency EU summit is now planned for April 10.

However, the extension of the negotiated period would mean that Britain would have to hold elections for the European Parliament in May, as the rest of the EU member-states are doing. And that would, in itself, entail fierce debates in the British parliament, with no guarantees that the necessary legislation can be put in place in the short time available.

Either way, it is now only a matter of days before Prime Minister May announces her resignation. Her job was never an easy one, but she has failed on the most essential of tasks, which was to shepherd Britain out of the EU with minimum friction. 

She lost the confidence of her political allies and never earned the respect of her opponents. And she won’t be trusted to take Britain on the next hazardous journey which now lies ahead.

[email protected]

Related Stories: 

Source: Read Full Article