Final Brexit countdown: Outcome still uncertain
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British Prime Minister Theresa May was on a collision course with the European Union yesterday after lawmakers demanded she renegotiate a Brexit divorce deal that the other members of the bloc said they would not reopen.
Less than two months before the United Kingdom is due by law to leave the EU on March 29, investors and allies are trying to gauge where the crisis will end up, with options including a disorderly Brexit, a delay to Brexit, or no Brexit at all.
Two weeks after voting down May鈥檚 Brexit deal by the biggest margin of defeat for a government in modern British history, parliament demanded she return to Brussels to replace the so-called Irish backstop, an insurance policy that aims to prevent a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.
May said she would seek 鈥渓egally binding changes鈥 to the divorce deal which she clinched in November with the EU after two years of tortuous negotiations.
鈥淭here is limited appetite for such a change in the EU and negotiating it will not be easy,鈥 May told lawmakers who voted 317 votes to 301 to support the plan, which had the backing of influential Conservative lawmaker Graham Brady.
In essence, May will try to use the implicit threat of a no-deal Brexit to clinch a deal from the other 27 members of the EU whose economy is, combined, about six times the size of the United Kingdom鈥檚.
The response from European capitals was blunt. France, the EU鈥檚 second most powerful member, said there could be no renegotiation and demanded a 鈥渃redible鈥 British proposal. European Council President Donald Tusk said the divorce deal was not up for renegotiation.
May, an initial opponent of Brexit who won the top job in the chaos following the 2016 referendum, is now locked into a game of brinkmanship with the EU and her own split party.
While the EU has repeatedly refused to reopen the divorce deal, EU sources said additional clarifications, statements or assurances on the backstop might be possible. Some diplomats and officials now think Britain鈥檚 exit will not be decided until the very last moment.
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