LONDON, Dec 10, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – British Prime Minister Theresa May faces a
fight for her political life this week in a parliamentary vote that will
decide the fate of her Brexit divorce deal.
The beleaguered leader’s splintered government appears to be facing a heavy
defeat in parliament on Tuesday on the draft withdrawal agreement she signed
with Brussels last month.
The text defining terms on which the island nation leaves its main trading
partner after 46 years is the most important to face the House of Commons in
years.
A big loss could spark immediate challenges to May from both within her
Conservative Party and the opposition Labour party.
It would also leave the tortuous Brexit process in a state of flux — and
raise the prospects of a no-deal scenario — less than four months before the
March 29 departure date.
Media reports said May was under pressure from her cabinet to try to
salvage the deal by delaying the vote and flying to Brussels to seek more
concessions ahead of a planned summit with 27 fellow EU leaders on Thursday
and Friday.
But Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay told the BBC on Sunday: “The vote is
going ahead.”
– ‘Risk of no Brexit’ –
May’s team insists that her vision offers the cleanest break between the UK
and EU that Brexit supporters could hope for at this late stage.
A rejection by parliament “would mean grave uncertainty for the nation with
a very real risk of no Brexit,” May told the Mail on Sunday.
She also raised the spectre of an early election and a possible return to
power of the opposition Labour Party for the first time since 2010.
May said the prospects of Labour leader “Jeremy Corbyn getting his hands on
power is a risk we cannot afford to take.”
Newspapers have identified more than six current and former ministers in
May’s cabinet who are also ready to run for her job should she falter over
the coming days.
EU supporters, meanwhile, are pinning their hopes on a European Court of
Justice ruling on Monday on whether Britain’s parliament has the right to
unilaterally halt Brexit in its tracks.
– Token concessions –
May would have a tough job securing better divorce terms acceptable to the
Northern Irish DUP party that has propped up her government for more than a
year.
EU President Donald Tusk signalled that no concessions would be made after
speaking to May by phone on Sunday.
Yet Brussels also wants to see May succeed and avert the economic nightmare
that could unfold should Britain break away without any arrangements
underpinning future trade.
European officials said they might be able to find a way to offer a token
concession in Brussels that May could take back to London.
But they stressed that such tinkering cannot alter the basis of the
withdrawal agreement itself.
The two sides might “work on the (accompanying) protocol or clarify a point
that is deemed important so that she can take it back to parliament,” an
informed European source told AFP on condition on anonymity.
May would then be expected to submit the touched-up version for a second
vote at an unspecified date.