Rejecting 62-year-old British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal with the European Union, the British parliament voted 202 to 432 to reject the plan May said was the best she could get. No time in British post WW II history has the parliament rejected any legislation so overwhelmingly, suggesting that May’s days leading the Tory Party as Prime Minister may be numbered. When British citizens voted June 21, 2016 on Brexit to leave the EU, the measure passed by 52% to 48%, suggesting voters felt strongly on both sides of the issue. As the gory details to the divorce with the EU became more obvious, including, trade, jobs, borders, cash settlement, etc., British voters started to get second thoughts. May rejected any attempts suggested by members of parliament, even within her Tory Party, to redo the Brexit vote to decide, once-and-for all, whether or not to cancel the first vote.
Polls have shown that a majority of British voters have second thoughts about the original vote realizing that they’d lose economic benefits afforded to them by membership in the EU. Parliament’s rejection of May’s Brexit plan indicates that the conditions are not satisfactory to parliament, but, more importantly, to British voters. EU officials led the European Commission President Jean-Claude Junker and European Council President Donald Tusk told May that she must accept the EU’s final offer, without any more negotiation. British lawmakers insisted she get a better deal especially on the so-called “backstop” between Northern Ireland and Irish Republic. When May got no guarantees, it left members of parliament reluctant to accept a deal that did not preserve the open border with Belfast. May’s Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party expressed doubts over the agreement.
Parliament’s 69-year-old Labor Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn called for a no confidence vote tomorrow, hoping to peal off votes from the Democratic Unionist Party, to sink May’s tenure. May need’s Belfast’s Democratic Unionist Party for a governing coalition, something that’s not in question. Expecting to get their support in a no confidence vote doesn’t mirror the parliament’s overwhelming rejection of May’s Brexit plan. “The House has spoken and the government will listen,” May said after the vote. Why May wasn’t listening before the vote is anyone’s guess. When faced with a no confidence vote tomorrow, May’s backers should consider that fact that she’s already wasted over two years and couldn’t get an acceptable deal from the EU. More than the vote on Brexit, May faces a crisis of confidence with her leadership, something that’s been developing for some time.
With only three months left until the Brexit deadline, May’s running out of time to get a soft-Brexit landing or face the so-called “no-deal” Brexit where uncertainty would prevail on the breakup. Regardless of what happens to May tomorrow, it’s time for the government to launch a second Brexit vote, to give British citizens clarity on what’s best for the country. Recent polls have indicated that a new Brexit vote would not pass today. May could suspend the March 30 departure date, kicking the can down the road. If the Brexit date is postponed, it’s nearly certain that the government would have to hold a new referendum to proceed toward Brexit. “If you can’t resolve the impasse here in Westminister, the you have to refer it to the people,” said Labor Party lawmaker Chuka Umunna, supporting a second referendum. If May really hears the parliament, she’ll agree to a new Brexit vote.
May couldn’t get a firm commitment from the EU on the so-called “backstop,” preventing the EU from re-introducing a hard border with custom’s controls to Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland and the Republic fear a hard border would irreparably damage economic ties between close trading partners. Conservatives want May to go back to the EU for a Plan B, to get more assurances on the “backstop.” Junker said that rejecting the EU’s Brexit deal would increase “the risk of a disorderly withdrawal of the United Kingdom,” giving no reassurance that Plan B would look any differently than Plan A. Whatever May gets from the EU, it wouldn’t likely “placate her Brexiteers,” said Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen May University in London. Parliament’s overwhelming rejection goes to the heart of May’s leadership, something on the line in tomorrow’s no confidence vote.
May’s run out of options to preserve her job as prime minister. Instead of maneuvering herself any longer, she should take the message from the British parliament and resign. Keeping May in power does nothing to resolve her unacceptable Brexit deal. She overplayed her hand, when she could have scheduled a new Brexit vote to resolve the Brexit deal one way or another. May’s Tory Party backers should face the music that she not longer has the backing of a vast majority of British citizens, having tried-but-failed to pull off an acceptable Brexit deal. “If a deal is impossible, and one wants no deal, then who will finally have the courage to say what the only positive solution is?” asked Tusk, suggesting that the U.K. should cancel Brexit for good. Whether it’s a new referendum or simply a decision to end Brexit, it’s clear that divorcing the EU was not a practical solution to Britain’s problems.
