May Heads Back to Brussels After More Brexit Humiliation at Home
By Tim Ross , Svenja O'Donnell , and Emma Ross-Thomas | December 13, 2017
U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May heads to a European summit that was set to be a celebration of the
breakthrough victory in Brexit talks she clinched last week. Instead, she arrives hours after a serious defeat at the hands of her own party.
Lawmakers voted 309 to 305 on Wednesday evening to change her government’s planned legislation so that it guarantees they will get a “meaningful vote” on the final deal to leave the European Union at the end of negotiations in 2019. And rather than the Brexit hardliners who have so often undermined her, this time it was pro-Europeans who defected.
The embarrassing reversal for the beleaguered British leader raises questions about whether she can muster enough backing for her vision of Brexit, whose convulsions have dominated U.K. politics for 18 months. While the recent focus was on striking a palatable agreement with the EU on the initial terms of the divorce, the greater challenge has always been on the home front.
Lawmakers in the House of Commons will now have the power to veto the withdrawal treaty before the U.K. leaves the EU if they don’t like the terms. Another defeat looms next week over an amendment that could attract even more rebel backing.
"She has come back to earth with a bump after her success of last week," said Mij Rahman, a political analyst at Eurasia Group in London. "This vote increases the prospect of the Commons rejecting May’s deal next October or November."
May made a personal plea in parliament for colleagues to support her. Ministers spent the day proposing concessions aimed at buying off rebels, including a last-minute offer to come back with a new text. That was met with cries of “too late” in the chamber, before her authority took another knock. The pound pared earlier gains after the vote.
Softer Option
Few people expect May to lose her job. What becomes more likely is that the U.K. will leave the EU in less dramatic fashion than some of May’s ministers wanted and company executives had warned about, the no-deal or "cliff edge" scenario. It points more toward a so-called "soft" Brexit that keeps Britain more in step with the EU, albeit with more twists and turns to come.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...iating-loss-on-key-brexit-law-as-tories-rebel