Lawmakers vote to have a bigger say in Brexit
Print Edition
BRITAIN’S parliament sought a new Brexit approach yesterday after seizing the initiative from Prime Minister Theresa May in a historic vote taken to stave off a looming “no-deal” divorce.
Lawmakers exasperated by Britain’s failed efforts to split from the European Union after three years of debates and negotiations voted on Monday to give themselves a broader say on what happens next.
The motion creates parliamentary time for MPs to come up with their own proposals in place of the ill-loved deal May struck with Brussels at the end of last year.
The unprecedented measure passed by a 329-302 margin and saw three junior ministers quit the government to vote against the prime minister.
Richard Harrington said he resigned as business minister because May’s course and the resulting impasse had left Britain with “a democratic deficit.”
Junior foreign minister Alistair Burt said he quit to help the House of Commons “come to a conclusion for the country’s sake.”
Starting over
The measure was backed primarily by Europhiles who want to either reverse Brexit or preserve much closer economic ties with the remaining 27 EU states. They represent the views of roughly half the voters in a deeply divided that is still coming to terms with the outcome of the 2016 Brexit vote.
No one is entirely sure how parliament will approach its new role in the week the 46-year partnership was scheduled to have ended.
EU leaders pushed back Brexit day to April 12 after meeting May in Brussels last week and deciding that Britain still did not know what it wanted to do.
The proposed agenda submitted to parliament yesterday would see MPs first pick through an array of choices today.
“We may then change the system for next week as we are trying to narrow it down,” co-sponsor Hilary Benn told BBC radio.
The biggest worry for May is a mooted plan for parliament in the following days to take an even firmer grip of the Brexit agenda by passing legislation that forces the government’s hand.
Parliament’s initial votes will be non-binding instructions that only carry political weight.
May has already signaled that she might ignore them if they so much as contradict her Conservative party’s 2017 election platform.
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